A brief history of the Thornton Award, a fake trophy for best debut with a new team

It’s summer and nothing’s happening. Let’s make up another fake award.

We did this last summer, when we introduced the Pollock Trophy for a season’s best trade. Prior to that, we’ve also done the Carson Trophy for best sophomore season, as well as the Bourque Trophy for best final season. None of these actually exist, but they should, and that’s enough for our purposes.

For today’s award, we’re going to create the Joe Thornton Award for the best debut with a new team.

A couple of quick rules: Rookie debuts have their own award, so they don’t count – a player has to have previously played for another NHL team before joining a new one. Unlike most awards, we're taking the playoffs into consideration. And finally, a player has to have played at least half the season with his new team, because I don’t feel like figuring out how to rate deadline pickups. Other that that, the field is open – we can be looking at trades, free agent signings, waiver pickups or whatever else.

We’ll cover the cap era, starting with a 2006 recipient. It’s Slow News Summer, let’s argue about an award that doesn’t exist.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)

The 2021 OGWAC rankings

The playoffs are here, and longtime readers know what that means: It’s OGWAC ranking time.

The OGWAC is the Old Guy Without a Cup, and he’s one of the postseason’s greatest traditions. Almost every champion will have at least one OGWAC who’s been toiling away in the league forever without ever getting to lift the Cup. Sometimes he’s a grizzled depth guy, sometimes he’s a superstar and often he’s somewhere in between, and all those scenarios can work. Be warned: When an especially great OGWAC story plays out, you will cry a little.

The greatest OGWAC of all time was Ray Bourque in 2001, taking the crown away from Lanny McDonald in 1989. Teemu Selanne in 2007 was a great one, as was Kimmo Timonen in 2015, and more recently we had Jay Bouwmeester in 2019.

I love a good OGWAC, which is why I’ve been coming up with an annual ranking since the Grantland days. Needless to say, we have to do it again this year. We’ll use the same criteria as last season – to qualify for OGWAC status, a player needs to be at least 33 when the Cup is handed out, have at least ten seasons in the NHL, and be playing a regular role for his team (or in the case of injured players, expected to return during the playoffs). Anyone who meets those standards qualifies for consideration, but the higher spots on the lists will go to players who’ve waited the longest and/or been the biggest stars. Bonus points if a player has had to overcome significant adversity, or has come agonizingly close to winning in the past before missing out.

Can anyone give Bourque a run for his money? One guy might be able to, but we’ll get to that. Let’s set the cut-off at 20, which still rules out some solid honorable mentions like Cal Clutterbuck and Nick Holden. Keep getting older and not winning guys, and maybe you’ll crack the list next year.

20. Nate Thompson, Jets
A classic hard-nosed veteran, Thompson is 36 and has bounced around the league, playing for nine teams in his 14-season career. He’s a not a star, or even all that close, but but that’s fine and sometimes can even be part of the appeal. The question is how much love he can get on a Jets roster that’s crowded with OGWACs.

19. Jeff Petry, Canadiens
Petry barely clears the age bar, having turned 33 in December and played 11 seasons, but some of those were in Edmonton so they count double. He’s a decent candidate, but not the best OGWAC defenseman on his own team. Yes, I am going to be using some of these early entries to set up future ones, thanks for noticing.

18. Kris Russell, Oilers
I think we’ve safely reached the point where you can mention Russell’s name without immediately starting an analytics vs. old school bar brawl, so let’s all agree that he’s spent 14 seasons doing a lot thankless work for five different teams, and doesn’t have much playoff success to show for it. We’ll need him to get healthy in time for any kind of Oilers run before he can move up the list, and the way the Jets are playing that isn’t looking likely, so for now we’ll slot him in here.

17. Nick Foligno, Maple Leafs
There’s this narrative that the Leafs are swimming with OGWACs, which isn’t quite true – Wayne Simmonds is the fourth-oldest player on the team but he’s only 32. There are two other names we’ll get to a little further down, but for now let’s focus on Foligno, a 33-year-old who’s already 14 seasons into his career. He’s never had a near-miss, debuting in Ottawa the year after their run to the final, and has never played more than 10 playoff games in a postseason. Still, he’s an easy guy to root for, especially in Columbus, and the fact that his dad had a long career without a Cup adds some drama. The Maple Leafs’ OGWAC energy is focused elsewhere, though.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)

Grab Bag: How to increase scoring without making the nets bigger, a draft lottery request, young Joe Thornton and friends, and more

In the Friday Grab Bag:
- So you want more scoring but won't make the nets bigger. Cool, I've got some idea...
- A simple request about the draft lottery debate
- An obscure player who may have gone to Alcatraz
- The three comedy stars
- And a YouTube look back at teenaged Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Roberto Luongo

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)

Puck Soup: Building the perfect booth

In this week's episode of the Puck Soup podcast:
- Greg died so it's just me and Ryan
- Doc Emrick's retirement leads us to our ideal broadcast booths
- The Blackhawks are rebuilding... we think? Can they pull it off?
- Joe Thornton to the Leafs, and some thoughts on OGWACs
- A roundup of where we're at and who's still left in free agency - An interview with comedian John Cullen
- A new game that's a lot harder than it sounds, and more...

>> Stream it now:

>> Or, listen on The Athletic or subscribe on iTunes.

>> Get weekly mailbags and special bonus episodes by supporting Puck Soup on Patreon for $5.

The Maple Leafs have signed Joe Thornton, theoretically filling their third-line center role without putting too much strain on their cap. More importantly, though, it’s just a great story, with a future Hall of Famer coming to Toronto in hopes of being the final piece to end the franchise’s Stanley Cup drought. It’s like a movie.

But if so, it’s a movie we’ve seen before because the Leafs have had a bit of a habit over the years of making exactly this sort of move. In the decades since they won their last Cup in 1967, the Leafs have made more than a few moves to bring in Hall of Famers whose best years were behind them, but they hoped could still contribute. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. So today, let’s look at ten ways the Joe Thornton signing could play out, with help from other moves from Leafs history.

Level 1: The worst-case scenario

The player: Doug Gilmour

The transaction: The big trade that brought Gilmour to Toronto in 1992 was arguably the best the franchise ever made. But that’s not the one we’re referring to here. Instead, we’re looking at the 2003 trade deadline move that saw the Leafs send a sixth-round pick to Montreal to reacquire their 39-year-old former captain for one last run.

The outcome: Well, the first four shifts went well.

That’s about the best you can say for this story, one of the worst in modern Leafs history. On just the fifth shift of his big return, Gilmour collided with Dave Lowry, stayed down, and then crawled off the ice. He’d blown out his knee and never played again. He didn’t even get a game back in Toronto.

I’m bummed out even thinking about it. Please keep Joe Thornton away from Dave Lowry.

Level 2: The whipping boy

The player: Larry Murphy

The transaction: Cliff Fletcher acquired the 34-year-old blueliner from the Penguins in 1995, hoping a player who’d had three top-five Norris finishes in the last four years could spark the Leafs’ fading offense.

The outcome: For reasons nobody is quite clear on to this day, Toronto fans never took to Murphy. He was never a bruiser, and he certainly had his share of shoddy defensive moments. But he also racked up 61 points in his only full season in Toronto, which made it strange to see him all but booed out of town. The Leafs shipped him to Detroit midway through the 1996-97 season for literally nothing at all, then watched him help the Red Wings to two Cups.

Luckily, there’s no way this market would glitch out and turn on somebody as universally beloved as Joe Thornton, right? (Laughs nervously while imagining Toronto Sun headlines saying stuff like “Dumbo Joe.”) No, of course not, let’s move on.

Level 3: Don’t remember him but if you say so

The players: Ron Francis and Phil Housley

The transaction: Fair warning, the Pat Quinn-era Leafs will show up on this list a lot, so much so that we can combine a pair of similar acquisitions. In 2003, his Leafs acquired a 39-year-old Housley for a pick. A year later, it was a 41-year-old Francis coming over from Carolina, also for a pick.

The outcome: No idea because nobody remembers anything about either of these moves.

OK, that’s not completely true. Francis was at least passable in Toronto, putting up 10 points in 12 games down the stretch before sputtering to just four assists in two rounds of playoff action. Housley barely did anything, appearing in just one regular-season game and three in the playoffs without recording a point.

Thornton isn’t a deadline acquisition, so with a full season he’s unlikely to fall into this category, but it remains to be seen if he’ll look as weird in a Leafs uniform as Francis did.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)

The season is already chaos. Screw it, let's reopen the trade market.

The NHL is in a weird place right now. With the season still on pause, we’re hearing all sorts of unusual ideas being floated. A June draft sure sounds like it’s happening, whether teams like it or not. Expanded playoffs, empty arenas, a revamped lottery and a December start to next season all seem to be in our future. In a league that isn’t exactly known for its creativity, it suddenly feels like nothing is off the table.

Cool. I’m a longtime member of the Team Chaos fan club. If we can’t go back to normal to finish the season – and we can’t – then we might as well steer into the madness and shake things up. And to help things along, I’ve got an idea of my own.

But first, I want to make something clear. The last time I had a crazy idea, I spelled it out in detail and everybody hated it, and then I went “Ha, I did that on purpose, I hate it too and I just tricked you all into agreeing with my larger point.” The old-bait-and-switch. And you’re probably wondering if I’m doing that again.

I am not. I genuinely think that this is a good idea and want to see it happen. Even though I know most of you will hate it … at first.

Here’s the idea: Let’s bring back trading.

As in, right now. Cancel the trade deadline. Teams can get back to wheeling and dealing, starting today.

In a technical sense, they already can; teams have always been allowed to continue trading after the traditional deadline has passed. But any players acquired couldn’t play in the NHL the rest of the season, including playoffs. I’m proposing that we lift that sanction, and go back to the same open market we had in the days leading up to Feb. 24.

You have questions. Well, what you actually have is the impulse to go mash the “meh” button and then yell at me in the comment section, which is fair enough. But before you do that, you should have a few questions. Let’s walk through those, starting with the obvious one.

Why would you do this?

For several reasons, including the most important: It would be fun.

The NHL is in the entertainment business, a fact that it often forgets. Furthermore, fans love trades. There’s a reason that the trade deadline is one of the biggest days on the NHL calendar, and that every deal gets picked apart and debated the moment it happens. We all love this stuff. Hockey trades are just fun.

Hockey fans haven’t had much fun lately. And by the sounds of it, we’re not going to get much any time soon, with at least another month to go before the draft and who knows how long until we see an actual hockey game. Wouldn’t it be neat to have some trades to talk about in the meantime?

I’ll concede that “just because it’s fun” isn’t a convincing argument all on its own. But there’s a bigger issue in play: Those expanded playoffs that we keep hearing about.

Nothing is final yet, but it sure sounds like the NHL wants to come back with a 24-team playoffs. Maybe that’s a good idea and maybe it isn’t, but it’s a radical change, and it’s coming pretty much out of nowhere. NHL teams went into this year’s deadline on the assumption that they were preparing for a 16-team playoff. If it’s going to be 24 teams instead, that changes everything.

Some teams would have gone into the February deadline assuming they weren’t making the postseason. Now they might be. They would have passed on the chance to add reinforcements, and in some cases, they may have been sellers who weakened their roster. Those deals are done, and we can’t undo them. But what we can do is give bubble teams a chance to reset, and to react to the radically different circumstances they now find themselves in.

Some would want to make changes. Others would stay the course. But they should get that choice. Adding eight new playoffs teams late in the regular season is an unprecedented-bordering-on-unthinkable move, and teams should at least have the chance to respond to it.

How would this work?

I have no idea!

Nobody does, because nobody knows anything right now. We’re all guessing, and that includes the NHL decision-makers.

But there’s a rough outline emerging of how the next few months will go. It involves an early June draft, followed by a resumption of the season in June or July. That might mean regular-season games or it might not, but at some point, we’re going to get to a playoffs that sure sounds like it will involve 24 teams.

Let’s assume that those broad strokes end up becoming the plan. What I’m suggesting is that we reopen trading, with the salary cap still in effect, from now until the games are back. It wouldn’t matter whether those games are the resumption of the regular season or the start of the playoffs. We just want to let NHL GMs have some time to adapt to their changing circumstances.

And yes, you may have noticed a nice side benefit to reopening trading now: We get draft day trades involving players back. Under the current rules, an early June draft wouldn’t be able to feature any blockbuster moves, and that’s often half the fun of draft weekend. Well, let’s bring it back. The June draft might still be a bad idea or it might not, but we just made it way more fun.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free 90-day trial.)

Puck Soup: Neutral sites, barn fights and game shows

In this week's episode of the Puck Soup podcast:
- The NHL might have to resume its season at a neutral site
- Is there a 68-game solution to playoff seeding?
- Brian Burke is ready to fight another GM
- An interview with David Carle
- Thoughts on those super-weird Wrestlemania matches
- We somehow end up creating an NHL/Jurassic Park mashup
- We rank our favorite (and least favorite) game shows

>> Stream it now:

>> Or, listen on The Athletic or subscribe on iTunes.

>> Get weekly mailbags and special bonus episodes by supporting Puck Soup on Patreon for $5.

This is so pointless: A brief history of players going oh-for-the-postseason

This post is going to be completely pointless.

Wait, that didn’t come out right. I don’t mean that this post won’t have any reason to exist. I mean, who would write something like that? (Realizes everyone is staring at him.) OK, yes, I may have had a few of those in my day. But this isn’t necessarily one of them.

No, I mean that this is going to be pointless in the other way – as in, it will have zero points. Today, we’re going to try to assemble an all-time roster of playoff performers who didn’t record a single point in a given postseason.

That’s not an easy thing to do, especially if you’re a decent player. Even if your team goes out early, you’d think that you’d get in on at least one goal along the way. But as we’ll see, there are some surprisingly big names on the list. And a few other players have some interesting stories to tell.

Nobody from this year’s postseason made the cut, although a few almost did. Sidney Crosby didn’t get a point until his team’s final game. Neither did Nikita Kucherov. Of course, their runs ended early. But some lasted longer, like Carl Gunnarsson. He made it all the way to Game 2 of the final before finally recording a point. He actually had two that night. I can’t remember if any of them turned out to important.

The point is … well, sometimes there is no point. And that’s OK. Don’t worry, Viktor Arvidsson and Nikolaj Ehlers. Fear not, Nikita Zadorov, Micheal Haley, Trevor van Riemsdyk or Frederik Gauthier. You may have been pointless, but as you’re about to see, you’re in decent company.

First line

C Phil Esposito (1964 and 1967)

We’ll start off with a Hall-of-Famer who qualifies for our list in two seasons, one of which helped change NHL history. Esposito’s playoff debut came in 1964 when he was a 22-year-old rookie. He was only a bit player with the Hawks back then and had only managed three goals in part-time duty during the regular season, so his pointless performance in four games during a semifinal loss to the Red Wings wasn’t especially newsworthy.

But three years later, Esposito was coming off a 61-point season that left him tied for seventh in the league scoring race. With a lineup that also featured Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita in their primes, the Hawks ran away with top spot in the NHL, racking up 94 points over the 70-game schedule while outscoring the next best offensive team by 52 goals. They went into the playoffs as heavy favorites, before being stunned by the Maple Leafs in six games. Esposito was held off the board again, cementing a reputation as a player who couldn’t be counted on when it mattered.

Convinced they needed a change in direction, the Hawks traded him to the Bruins in an offseason deal that stands as one of the most important trades in NHL history. Esposito developed into one of the greatest goal-scorers the league had ever seen, helping the Bruins win two Cups. And it may have never happened if he’d just managed a point or two in that 1967 playoff loss.

RW Mike Gartner (1989) and LW Bryan Trottier (1988)

We’ll give Esposito a pair of Hall-of-Famers on his wings, even if we have to ask Trottier to play out of position to do it. Gartner never won a Cup and occasionally fought a reputation as a guy who was a better regular season star than a playoff performer, as evidenced by the 1994 Rangers shipping him out at the deadline. He did have some decent postseasons, including four where he hit double-digit points. But his lone spring as a North Star saw him go pointless after a massive deadline deal and he’d be gone less than a year later.

As for Trottier, he won six Cups, led the postseason scoring race twice, won a Conn Smythe and ranks among the highest scoring playoff players ever. But he was blanked in a first-round loss in 1988 despite an 82-point regular season, finishing behind high-scoring Islander teammates like Gerald Diduck and Ken Leiter.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free seven-day trial.)

The 2019 playoff disappointment index

The Blues and Bruins continue the Stanley Cup final tonight and yay, wonderful, good for them. What about the rest of us?

After all, it’s not easy to watch other teams (and fans) have all the fun. If your team didn’t make the playoffs at all, then there’s a chance you’ve already checked out. It can be refreshingly stress-free to watch the postseason without having a horse in the race, but not many of us want to hang around outside and stare into the window of a party we weren’t invited to. If you’ve spent the last six weeks ignoring the playoffs and just reloading Corey Pronman’s page instead, nobody could blame you.

And if you did have a team in the playoffs, you’re still furious over how they went out. I don’t even need to know what team you cheer for – I know that you think the refereeing was stacked against you, quite possibly on the direct orders of Gary Bettman, and that the team that beat you are unworthy cretins who didn’t deserve a thing. We’re hockey fans, sadness mixed with rage is what we do.

But not all exits are created equal, and some fans have a better claim at post-elimination misery than others. So today, let’s go through those 14 eliminated playoff teams and rank them from the least to the most disappointment their fans should be feeling right now. We’ll start with the teams that might actually feel vaguely good about their playoff experience, and work our way down to the ones that should still be sobbing.

It should be a real pick-me-up. Let’s get started.

Obviously, you want to win the Cup, and you’ll never be completely satisfied with a season that ends any other way. But the Hurricanes did just about everything else they could have hoped for this year. They made it back to the postseason after a nine-year absence. They rebuilt a fan base in their market, and forged an identity beyond it. They knocked off the defending Stanley Cup champions in a seven-game double-overtime thriller for the ages. And then they won another round on top of that.

It’s not a Cup, but for a franchise that had fallen on hard times over the last decade, it was the next best thing. The core is young, they’ve got their coach, and their fans have been reminded how much fun hockey can be. Once the initial bitterness over a conference final loss fades, it will be hard to look back on this year and find all that much disappointment at all.

#13: Colorado Avalanche

The Avs were the only team that came into the playoffs having lost more games than they won. They weren’t even one of the top 16 teams in the regular season, having finished six points back of non-playoff Montreal. And they drew a first-round matchup against a Flames team that finished 17 points ahead of them.

Given all of that, it’s hard to be too disappointed with how things worked out. The Avalanche didn’t just upset the Flames, they dominated stretches while knocking them off in five games. Then they took the star-studded Sharks to seven before finally bowing out.

Sure, that seventh game included a waved-off goal on an offside review that was nit-picky and maybe even wrong, so there’s a decent dose of what-might-have-been here. But ultimately, a young Avalanche team overachieved, setting the stage for future success. You’ll take that.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free seven-day trial.)

Puck Soup: Final countdown

In this week's episode of the Puck Soup podcast:
- We preview the Stanley Cup final, including our picks for the Cup and Conn Smythe
- Where do the Sharks go from here?
- The Senators hire a coach as we're recording
- A conversation about spoilers and the people who complain about them
- And lots more...

>> Stream it now:

>> Or, subscribe on iTunes.

>> Get weekly mailbags and special bonus episodes by supporting Puck Soup on Patreon for $5.

Sharks vs. Blues: Which franchise holds the crown for making its fans miserable?

We may be just a few days away from deciding the most important title in the NHL.

No, not “Stanley Cup champion.” Those come and go. This is something bigger and more enduring. We’re talking about the title of the most miserable franchise in the entire league. Which team has done the most to torture its fan base over the years?

For a long time, there was a fairly easy answer. It was the Washington Capitals, a franchise that had built a reputation for finding new and exciting ways to raise expectations and then brutally crush them. Whether it was blowing 3-1 series leads, or losing quadruple overtime game sevens, or winning Presidents’ Trophies only to lose to a hot goalie or to the Penguins or to a hot goalie on the Penguins, the Capitals were the undisputed kings of hockey misery.

But then last year, it all came crashing down. They actually went out and won a Stanley Cup. It was confusing and even a little frightening. And it left the hockey world wondering: Which team has the best claim to the vacated throne?

The Canucks certainly have a strong case, one bolstered by nearly a half-decade without a title that includes two heart-breaking Game 7 losses in the final. The Sabres would be right there with them, with a Cup-losing goal that shouldn’t have counted highlighting their resume. The Maple Leafs could be in the mix too since their last Cup came before most of today’s fans were alive. Maybe you work in some consideration for fans in places like Winnipeg, Minnesota or Ottawa.

But the two teams that have to be near the top of just about any list are the St. Louis Blues and the San Jose Sharks. Those two teams have spent the last few decades doing what miserable teams do: Being pretty good just about every season, convincing their weary fan base that this just might be the year and then having something horrible happen to crush those hopes and dreams.

As a lifelong Maple Leafs fan, I know a thing or two about misery. And I think there’s a strong case to be made that when it comes to taking over the Capitals’ crown, the Sharks and the Blues are the two best candidates we have. But which one should earn the honors? That’s a tough call. As we wait for the two teams to face off in Game Six of the Western Conference final, let’s compare their cases in a head-to-head battle with even bigger stakes.

How long are we talking about?

True misery isn’t a short-term game, but a slow drip that builds over time. It’s not about a moment or a series or even a season. We’re looking for decades here.

The Sharks: San Jose entered the league as an expansion team (sort of) back in 1991, which doesn’t seem like all that long ago to some of us but actually puts the Sharks right around the middle of the current league in terms of longevity in their market. We are all so old.

They were historically awful for their first two years. But when you’re talking about their history of misery, you’re really starting the clock right around 2001, when they crack the 90-point mark for the first time and start heading into the postseason with expectations. That kicks off a long run of regular season success that’s still going to this day, with only two playoff misses in nearly two decades. But of course, no Cup.

The Blues: The Blues came into the league in the 1967 expansion and were the first quasi-success story among the half-dozen new teams. They won the all-expansion West Division in each of its first three years, earning trips to the Cup final each time but never winning. They didn’t have much success in the 1970s but had turned things around by the start of the 1980s.

That’s when the Blues really became the Blues – which is to say, a perfectly respectable regular season team that never seemed to do all that much in the playoffs. From 1979-80 through to the 2005 lockout, the Blues made the playoffs every year. That’s 25 straight seasons, the same as what the Red Wings pulled off in their much-hyped streak. And yet I’m guessing some of you may have never even heard of the Blues streak because it didn’t deliver any Cups or even any final appearances and only two trips out of the second round. The St. Louis Blues: Just kind of there™.

Misery edge: This one’s a pretty easy call as (furiously punches numbers into his calculator) 52 years is more than 28. The Sharks’ case here is that they may have had more seasons with serious expectations; they’ve had nine 100+ point seasons since 2001, compared to eight for the Blues since 1980. But St. Louis still takes this one.

Signature heart-breaking moment

Every truly miserable fan base has a few of those plays that they still can’t watch without wanting to whip the remote through the TV.

The Sharks: This ends up being a tougher call than you might think, for reasons we’ll get to down below. But for sheer hands-over-head disbelief, it’s hard to beat the way they were eliminated by the Canucks in the 2011 conference final.

That’s just the hockey gods toying with you right there.

The Blues: It’s the opening round of the 2000 playoffs and the Blues have just captured their first and only Presidents’ Trophy. They’re heavy favorites over the eighth-seeded Sharks, but the underdogs have stretched the series to a seventh game. And then, with seconds left in the first period in front of 19,000 stunned fans, this happens:

That ends up being the winning goal and the best season in franchise history ends in Round 1.

Misery edge: For creativity, it’s the Sharks for sure. But for actual psyche-scarring misery, the Blues get the nod here.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free seven-day trial.)

The 2019 OGWAC rankings

OK,​ kids. Hike up​ your​ pants​ around​ your​ armpits,​ hang an​ onion from your​ belt and park​ your​ walker over by​​ rotary phone, because it’s time for the annual OGWAC rankings.

For you newbies, an OGWAC is that beloved species of hockey player whose story everyone loves to hear during the playoffs: the Old Guy Without a Cup. He’s the grizzled veteran who’s been around forever and has probably come agonizingly close a time or two, but he doesn’t have a ring and he’s running out of time. Everyone’s rooting for him, and if his team does win it all, he usually gets the honor of being the first in line for the Cup handoff.

The greatest OGWAC story of all-time is Ray Bourque in 2001, one that still makes the toughest hockey fan you know cry a little. Others include Teemu Selanne in 2007, Lanny McDonald in 1989 and Kimmo Timonen in 2015. Last season’s OGWAC story was Alexander Ovechkin, who was a little young for the honor but has somehow had grey hair for five years, so we’ll allow it.

I’ve been breaking down the annual OGWAC rankings going back to the Grantland days and the format hasn’t changed much. It doesn’t need to, because the OGWAC is timeless. Or so I thought. Because this year, I’m starting to wonder if we don’t need something new.

I think we might need to introduce the OGWACWIT: The Old Guy With a Cup Who Isn’t Thornton.

After all, there isn’t really a ton of suspense about the top spot in these rankings. Joe Thornton has emerged as one of the league’s most lovable characters and will be a no-questions-asked Hall-of-Famer as soon as he’s eligible. But he’s about to turn 40 and has battled injuries in recent years. He’s almost at the end of the road and still doesn’t have his ring. He’s pretty much the archetypal OGWAC right now.

Even as wait to see if last night’s high hit on Tomas Nosek gets him suspended, Thornton is going to rank at the top of our list. Sorry for the spoiler. But there are plenty of other guys who are worth a mention too. Let’s count down the best stories of the Cupless guys who a.) are at least 33 years old; b.) have played at least ten seasons; c.) are in the playoffs and either playing or at least have a chance to at some point.

With the criteria set, let’s get to the rankings. We’re going to need a top 15 this time, because for reasons I’m not quite clear on, there are just a ton of great OGWAC candidates this year. And even a few OGWACWITs.

15. Dan Hamhuis, Predators

Hamhuis is a nice starting point because he’s basically the classic OGWAC story. He’s 36, has played 15 seasons and won’t have too many more shots at this. And of course, he had an agonizing near-miss in 2011 with the Canucks. That loss was especially tough for Hamhuis, since he was hurt in the first game of the final and didn’t play again. He hasn’t won a playoff round since.

This year’s Predators are an especially loaded OGWAC team, as we’ll see a little bit further down. That hurts Hamhuis’s standing just a bit, but he’s still worthy of a spot on our list.

14. Matt Hendricks, Jets

Hendricks is a bit of a tricky call. On the one hand, he’s a 37-year-old role player and his teammates love him. And unlike some of the other players on this list, this really does seem like his last shot at a Cup. On the other, there’s a good chance we won’t see him suit up for the Jets during this run – he barely played down the stretch and is really here to be a veteran leader as opposed to an on-ice contributor. In terms of the Jets who matter during this postseason, Hendricks doesn’t rank that high.

Still, it’s a long way to a Stanley Cup, and if the Jets can get past the Blues and go deep, you never know who they might need. And if Hendricks was in the lineup for a Cup win, he’d be close to a guaranteed first handoff. We’ll rank him here and hope against hope that his case gets stronger in the weeks to come.

13. Blake Comeau, Stars

Comeau’s the youngest player on our list, having just turned 33 in February. But he’s had the classic journeyman career that can make for a great OGWAC story, playing 13 seasons for six teams and never having seen the second round of the playoffs. In fact, he’s only ever been part of six playoff wins, including Game 1 against the Predators.

We can’t rank him too high since he’s presumably got more runway left than most of the other guys on this list. But let’s consider him an OGWAC prospect to keep an eye on.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free seven-day trial.)

DGB Grab Bag: An idea to save the All-Star game, Jim Lites’ bleeping tirade and the story of the Saska-Who Blues

In the Friday Grab Bag:
- Stars like Alexander Ovechkin skipping the all-star game is a problem, but there's a simple solution
- Dallas Stars CEO Jim Lites had a bit of a meltdown, but I have an idea for how he can make it up to us
- An obscure player with a famous name and a monster rookie season
- The week's three comedy stars, plus the last member of the Hall of Fame class of 2019
- And a YouTube breakdown of the time that a dog food company tried to move the St. Louis Blues to Saskatoon

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

Grab bag: Three stars of comedy HOF, Seattle GM power rankings, the Vegas outdoor game and more

In the Friday Grab Bag:
- The Three Stars of Comedy hall of fame class of 2019 is here, and it needs your vote
- A power ranking of the ten most entertaining choices for Seattle's new GM
- The NHL really needs to stop putting one player from every team in the all-star game
- An obscure player who's basically just there so I could make a bad Christmas pun
- And a YouTube look back at the modern NHL's original outdoor classic

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

When opening week games go horribly wrong

On​ Tuesday, we had​ some​ fun​ with​ the​ idea of​ overreacting to​ the season’s first​ week. It’s a silly​ thing​ that hockey fans​​ tend to do, and we usually end up looking back in a few months and wondering what all the fuss was about.

But every now and then the hockey gods like to smack us on the nose with an opening-week game that’s so lopsided, we wonder if they’re trying to tell us something. It’s one thing to lose a game or two. It’s another thing entirely to see your team get blown out of the water. That’s when it’s time to worry.

Or is it? I fired up the hockey-reference play index to see how many teams had been blown out by five goals or more in one of their first three games of the season during the cap era. It turns out to be rare, but not overly so, happening about twice a year on average. And as it turns out, some of the teams on the wrong end of those lopsided scores turned out just fine.

So today, let’s provide a dose of optimism for any teams that happen to get embarrassed this week. If they’re lucky, they’ll end up having a season like one of these seven teams.

---

The team: The 2017-18 Winnipeg Jets

The game: With hopes high that this would be the year the Jets finally returned to the postseason and maybe even win the first playoff game in their v2 history, Winnipeg hosted the Maple Leafs for their season opener. It was Steve Mason’s first game as a Jet, not to mention an early test against a fellow Canadian team hoping to contend in the near future.

It didn’t go well. The Leafs jumped out to a 3-0 lead, widened the gap to 6-0 at one point, and went on to a 7-2 win.

The aftermath: Patrik Laine described the game as “just embarrassing” and one columnist remarked that the Jets would “need to go back to the video machine for another look at that defensive game they thought they had patched up in training camp”. (For their part, Maple Leaf fans reacted with their typical mix of humility and good grace.)

The Jets looked almost as bad in their second game, a 6-3 road loss to the Flames in which they gave up 45 shots, as well as five unanswered goals after the first period. But they wouldn’t lose two straight in regulation again until December, recording 114 points and making the conference final.

In a sense, the first two games probably helped, since they weakened Mason’s hold on the starter’s duties and paved the way for Connor Hellebuyck’s emergence as a Vezina candidate. And besides, as bad as their start was, the Jets weren’t even the biggest loser of that season’s opening week …

The team: The 2017-18 Pittsburgh Penguins

The game: After opening their season with an overtime loss at home, the Penguins headed to Chicago for a battle between two teams that had combined to win six of the last nine Cups. We all figured it was going to be a classic. It was not.

Instead, in a game that still stands as one of the strangest of the season, the Blackhawks shelled the Penguins 10-1. It was one of the most lopsided games of the modern era, and the Penguins’ most embarrassing loss since the dark days of their pre-lockout bankruptcy era.

The aftermath: When asked what went wrong, Sidney Crosby responded with: “Do we have enough time? It’s embarrassing.” Kris Letang described it as, “no effort, no emotion.” Coach Mike Sullivan called the outcome “disturbing.”

Then, the Penguins went out in their next game and shutout the eventual Presidents’ Trophy winners Nashville, 4-0.

That didn’t quite cleanse the memory of the Hawks wipeout, but it set the Penguins back on track. They ultimately failed to win a third straight Cup, but did finish with 100 points and win a playoff round and everyone largely forgot about the Chicago debacle.

(Well, maybe not everyone. That night’s starting goalie was the newly acquired Antti Niemi. It would be one of only three appearances he’d make as a Penguin before being waived with a 7.49 GAA and a .797 save percentage.)

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

Six offseason headlines I'd love to see (but won't)

After a relatively quiet draft weekend, it feels like we’re on the verge of some serious fireworks in the NHL off-season. There are plenty of big names still on the trade block, lots of teams with roster holes to fill, and the free-agency window for teams to talk to players is open.

We’re going to see some major headlines over the next few days. But which ones? That’s the multimillion-dollar question.

But if history is any indication, we can safely predict that whatever happens, it won’t be what you were hoping for. It never is. That’s just how the NHL works. So we might as well take some time now to get excited over what could happen, before we’re inevitably let down by what actually does.

In that spirit, here are a half-dozen headlines that I’d like to see over the next few days (but almost certainly won’t).

1) John Tavares signs a one-year max deal

The idea works something like this: Instead of signing a contract for the maximum length (eight years with the Islanders, seven years with anyone else), John Tavares should sign a one-year deal for the maximum dollar value. That would come in just under $16 million, and would make Tavares the highest-paid player in the history of the league in terms of full-season cap hit.

This one is hardly a new concept. In fact, in recent weeks it’s bubbled up from the fringes of hockey thinking to become a fairly regular talking point in Tavares speculation. And let’s be honest, at least part of that is because it’s a scenario that would favour the big-market Maple Leafs.

But there’s another good reason: It kind of makes sense.

That sort of contract would be essentially unheard of in the NHL. We occasionally see short-term deals signed by young RFAs, or by veteran UFAs nearing the end of their career. But an established star in his prime? Those guys almost always go for the longest deal they can get.

But look beyond the hockey world, and the idea starts to feel a little more familiar. NBA players have been willing to sign short contracts; LeBron James set the trend of stars signing one-year deals, and he’s made a fortune doing it. James seems like a pretty smart guy, so if the tactic is good enough for him, you’d think other athletes might at least want to consider it.

Would it be the right move for Tavares? From a purely financial perspective, sure. He’d almost certainly come out ahead on total dollars in the long run, perhaps significantly so. And he’d have control over his future, with the ability to leave a situation that wasn’t working and seek greener pastures elsewhere. That could give him a chance to try out a new home like Toronto, San Jose or Dallas. But it could also mean giving the Islanders one more year to get their act together and sell him on finishing his career there.

There would be downsides. For one, there’s the small but non-zero risk of an injury that torpedoes his long-term value. More importantly, it’s quite possible that Tavares isn’t enjoying his UFA journey, and isn’t eager to sign up to do it all over again a year from now. There’s something to be said for settling into a sense of permanence, even if it ultimately costs you a few dollars down the line.

But from a fan’s perspective, it would be fun to see Tavares blow up some long-held assumptions over how free agency is supposed to work. It feels inevitable that some NHL star will eventually go this route, and when it happens it will scramble our expectations of what an offseason looks like. It might even encourage more players to go to the market, and breathe new life into a UFA process that’s been getting dull over the years.

Tavares is in the perfect position to be that guy. He probably won’t, and if he chooses security and stability nobody will be able to blame him. But a little bit of short-term thinking would make things very interesting over the next few days.

>> Read the full post at Sportsnet

Who should take Alexander Ovechkin's crown as the NHL star who can't win the big one?

Alex Ovechkin has heard it for just about his entire NHL career: He can’t win the big one.

Sure, he can rack up the stats and personal accolades during the regular season, winning Rocket Richards and Hart Trophies almost at will. But when it’s all on the line, either in the Stanley Cup playoffs or the Olympics, he can’t get it done. Everyone knows it. He’s basically the NHL’s poster child for coming up small when it matters most.

But now, Ovechkin has finally led the Capitals to the final, and he’s three wins away from a championship. He and the Caps will have their work cut out for them against the Golden Knights, but they’ve defied expectations all spring. And if they do pull it off and Ovechkin gets his skate with the Cup, the NHL’s can’t-win-the-big-one squad will need a new leader.

So today, let’s run through the rest of the NHL and figure out which players are in the best position to take over Ovechkin’s role as the star player who just doesn’t have what it takes to earn a ring. As it turns out, there are plenty of candidates. We’ll count down 10 options.

10. Patrick Marleau, Maple Leafs

Marleau’s name doesn’t come up all that often in these discussions, partly because he seems like such a nice guy. But the reality is that he’s now 20 seasons into his career and is still chasing his first championship. Most of that time was spent with the Sharks, a team that’s established a reputation for falling short of expectations in the post-season. This year, Marleau made the jump to the Maple Leafs in what some saw as an attempt to get closer to that elusive ring, only to see San Jose go further into the post-season than Toronto did.

Marleau’s playoff numbers are reasonably good, down only slightly from his regular-season production, and he’s at least played in a final. But with over 1,500 career games played without ever winning the sport’s ultimate prize, he has to be on our list.

9. Pekka Rinne, Predators

There are a couple of goaltenders who’ll rank higher on our list than Rinne, and we’ll get to them in a moment. But the Predators’ star is well worth a mention, even on the heels of what figures to be a Vezina-winning season.

Rinne has had some very good playoff runs in his 10-season career, including last year’s trip to the final that saw him post a .930 save percentage. But others have been decidedly average, and he’s coming off a rough 2018 run that ended in disaster, with him yanked from Game 7 against the Jets after giving up two softies in just over 10 minutes. That’s the kind of performance that creates questions even after an excellent season, and it will be interesting to see how much confidence the Predators still have in their suddenly beleaguered star.

8. Maybe nobody?

Hear me out. Maybe the whole “He can’t win the big one” narrative was fatally flawed from the start, not just for Ovechkin but for everyone it was ever applied to. And maybe instead of looking for an heir apparent for Ovechkin’s crown, we should use his appearance in the final as an excuse to drop the whole concept altogether.

>> Read the full post at Sportsnet

Ranking the 2018 OGWACs

With eight teams left in the NHL playoffs, it’s still too early to start worrying about potential final matchups or Conn Smythe favourites. But it’s not too soon to start thinking ahead to one of the league’s best annual stories: the Old Guy Without a Cup.

Rallying behind the Old Guy Without a Cup (a.k.a. the OGWAC) is one of hockey’s great playoff traditions. Ray Bourque is probably the greatest OGWAC of all-time, finally capturing his first Stanley Cup at the age of 40 in what would turn out to be the last game of his career. Lanny McDonald’s 1989 championship was another classic OGWAC story, as was Teemu Selanne’s in 2007.

Last year it was Ron Hainsey, making his playoff debut as a 36-year-old. Like many OGWACs, Hainsey also received the honour of the first Cup handoff. There’s a good chance that this year’s playoffs end with a similar scene, since there are potential Old Guy stories lurking on almost every team left standing. But which one is the best?

Let’s define an “old guy” as someone who’s at least 35 or has been in the league for the entire salary-cap era. We’re also looking for players with a chance to actually be in the lineup for that Cup handoff, so we want guys who have either played in this year’s post-season or are likely to suit up soon.

That narrows our field a bit, but we’ve still got a decent group to choose from in this year’s OGWAC crop. Here are the 10 best remaining candidates, counting down to the best possible story.

No. 10: Paul Martin and Joel Ward, San Jose Sharks

We’ll call this one a tie so we can squeeze both Sharks into our top 10. Maybe that’s a little cheap, but both guys deserve a spot so here we are.

Ward didn’t become a full-time NHLer until he was 27, so even though he’s only been in the league for a decade he’s older than you probably think at 37. He’s had a few second-round exits over the years, and was part of the Sharks’ run to the final in 2016, so he’s had a taste. And his contract is up this year, meaning there’s no guarantee he gets another chance.

Meanwhile, Martin shows up on this list every year, and every year I have to double-check that he actually belongs here. Didn’t he win at least one Cup with the Devils or Penguins somewhere along the way?

Nope, although he just missed a few times — he debuted in New Jersey a season after their 2003 Cup win, then arrived a year after Pittsburgh’s 2009 title and left a year before they won again in 2016. To make matters worse, he had a front row seat to that last one, since it came against the Sharks.

Maybe he’s due. We also can’t rule out the possibility that he may be cursed.

No. 9: Scott Hartnell, Nashville Predators

Hartnell’s 36 years old and has been in the league since 2000, so he certainly fits the OGWAC profile. He’s also had a near-miss, coming within two wins of a Cup with the 2010 Flyers, and he’s another guy whose contract is expiring after this season, so this might well be his very last shot.

All that said, two things keep Hartnell from ranking higher on our list. First, the Predators are among this year’s deepest OGWAC teams, with two more strong candidates to consider. And Hartnell isn’t playing much so far in this year’s playoffs, appearing in just a single game so far, so there’s a good chance he wouldn’t even be in the lineup for a Predators’ Cup win.

No. 8: Braydon Coburn, Tampa Bay Lightning

Coburn barely sneaks onto our list by virtue of having played a few games during the 2005-06 season. But the Lightning are young enough that they don’t offer us much in the way of candidates – Dan Girardi and Ryan Callahan are both older than Coburn but didn’t enter the NHL until a year later, and our only other option is third-string goalie Peter Budaj.

So we’ll let Coburn represent Tampa. He’s a decent choice, with 120 career playoffs games on his resumé, including two unsuccessful trips to the Cup final. He’s a little young to rank much higher than this, but he’s worth rooting for.

>> Read the full post at Sportsnet

Grab bag: Happy anniversary

In the Friday Grab Bag:
- Should fans believe the annual Forbes report on NHL franchise values?
- The only way to save the 2018 Olympic hockey tournament
- An obscure player who went even longer than Pokey Reddick without a shutout
- The week's three comedy stars
- And a classic YouTube clip breakdown of a 25-year-old fight that seems vaguely familiar somehow...

>> Read the full post at Vice Sports

Podcast: Buttng heads

In this week's episode of Biscuits: A Hockey Podcast...
- We spend an uncomfortably long amount of time talking about Joe Thornton's butt check to TJ Oshie's face
- A breakdown of what's going on with Drew Doughty and Erik Karlsson
- We sort out last week's goalie fight debacle
- The Flyers finally win a game, but at least they're not the Sabres
- Dave basically admits he was wrong about 3-on-3 overtime and the shootout
- Reader questions, and lots more.

>> Stream it now on Vice Sports

>> Or subscribe on iTunes.