Grab Bag: The 12 fans you have to meet in every suspension debate

In the Friday Grab Bag:
- The 12 fans you meet in every suspension debate
- Something weird the NHL has started doing with its stats
- An obscure player who shares a major record with Wayne Gretzky
- Three comedy stars
- And remembering the Hampton Roads Rhinos, the most unlikely expansion team ever

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The Athletic Hockey Show: Fight night at MSG

On this week's episode of The Athletic Hockey Show:
- Ian and I react to a gong show at the Garden
- James Dolan shocks the hockey world, twice
- Do we buy that that statement and those firings were unrelated
- How we would fix the Department of Player Safety
- Jesse joins us to talk Stanley Cup value bets
- This week in history, listener mail and lots more...

The Athletic Hockey Show runs most days of the week during the season, with Ian and I hosting every Thursday. There are two versions of each episode available:
- An ad-free version for subscribers that you can find here
- An ad-supported version you can get for free wherever you normally find your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify)

Puck Soup: Tom Wilson starts another fight

On this week's episode of the Puck Soup podcast:
- We have to talk about Tom Wilson, and it goes about exactly the way you'd expect it to
- A discussion about Greg's "triggered" tweet
- What each of us would have done if we were the DoPS
- What might happen in tonight's rematch
- The Sabres gives us a feel-good story
- Award favorites, McDavid's chase, the top 100 sitcoms and a Star Wars-themed OUFL
- Also, no Gorton/Davidson talk because that broke after we recorded, sorry...

>> Stream it now:

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

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Finding positive thoughts for the 15 non-playoff teams

We’re almost done with the regular season, and the playoff race was a bit of a bust. That means that there are a lot of teams that already know they’re not going to the playoffs, and most of them can’t even say they came close. And that means a whole lot of fan bases that aren’t happy right now.

But it shouldn’t be that way, because optimism is always a better outlook than pessimism. (Note to long-time readers: Please ignore everything I’ve ever said or written about this league and just go with me on this.) A positive outlook is the way to go, both in hockey and in life.

So today, we’re going to break out a gimmick I’ve tried a few times in the past, and see if we can come up with three positive thoughts for each of the 15 teams that will miss the playoffs. That’s it – no nitpicking, no complaining, just three nice things to say about each team.

Of course, some teams will be more of a challenge than others, and we may have to stretch a bit on a few of these. Then somebody will complain, and then somebody else will complain about the complaint, and the comments section will be a disaster, and this is a bad idea and I’m going to hate myself for it and…

No. Stay positive. We can do this. Let’s look on the bright side. It’s rainbows and puppies only from here on out, whether you damn well like it or not.

Chicago Blackhawks

The negative: After briefly seeming like they could pull off a surprise playoff push, the Blackhawks quickly fell out of the race down the stretch.

Positive thought #1: All in all, that season went way better than most of us expected. The Hawks were a trendy pick to be in the running for dead last, and instead they made it interesting. Overachieving is always a good thing, and that’s especially true in a draft class year where bottoming out for a high pick won’t matter as much as it normally would.

Positive thought #2: Hey, remember that thing about the team not having any NHL-caliber goalies? Kevin Lankinen proved them wrong. We think. We don’t really know, because it’s goaltending, and we never know anything. But even after a rough April, his season still went a lot better than anyone expected.

Positive thought #3: While we still don’t know the details around Jonathan Toews missing the season, some recent reports have sounded optimistic about a potential return next year. Even at 33, he brings a ton to the table and the team clearly missed him this year.

Get the idea? The Hawks are one of the easier teams to try this with, but it’s important to warm up a bit before you get serious.

Detroit Red Wings

The negative: They’re going to miss the playoffs for the fifth straight year, and while their record will be better than it was during last year’s disaster, it’s on pace to be worse than in any of the first three years of the rebuild.

Positive thought #1: They finally escaped the bottom five! That was good, right? (Please don’t read this week’s rankings, where they might be right back in.)

Positive thought #2: The whole Yzerplan thing is going slowly, sure, but progress is being made. They’ve got some prospect help on the way, a ton of picks this year, lots of cap room to work with, and (maybe) a new set of eyes behind the bench to help it all along. The pain isn’t over yet, but you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and Red Wings fans seem like they’re willing to be patient.

Positive thought #3: The new draft lottery system means they’ll only drop two spots this year instead of the customary three.

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Weekend rankings: Predators up, Jets down, and getting excited about potential matchups

So about those furious playoff races down the stretch. Uh, never mind.

As far back as the final rankings of March, we worried about whether most of the races would be already decided by now. And sure enough, that’s pretty much what’s happened. Ten teams have mathematically clinched, and a few more are solidly in “unless there’s a miracle” territory. The East is done, with four teams locked in and only seeding to play for. The Blues’ surge combined with a Coyotes cold streak has all but ended the West race. In the North, the Habs’ late-season wobble opened the door, but the Flames and Canucks said “No thanks, we’re fine”, meaning we’re pretty much set there too.

If you enjoy a good late-season bubble watch, you’re down to the Stars and Predators in the Central. That’s pretty much it. And even that race could be done within days.

Ah well. This is hockey, and all we can do is adjust on the fly. So let’s do that, by turning our attention to the matchups we might get in round one. There’s some good news there, because man, the first round might be amazing.

Emphasis on “might”, because if you’ve been a fan long enough you know how this goes. A matchup looks like a sure thing, you let yourself get hyped for it, and then something weird happens on the season’s final week that blows it. We’ve all been there. I’ve sure been there. And I am ready to get hurt again, so let’s do this.

We covered a few of the matchups we should be rooting for last week, including the potential for the first-ever Battle of Florida. That one’s looking more likely, as the Hurricanes are in good shape to run out the clock on the division title. That would give us a Florida/Tampa matchup that would be all sorts of fun, not to mention pairing Carolina with either Dallas or Nashville, both of which would be sneaky cool matchups of non-traditional markets that we normally couldn’t get in a conference-based format. The Central looks good.

The West seeding might come down to the wire, and there’s a temptation to view their first round as the undercard to an inevitable Knights/Avs showdown in round two. Maybe it works out that way, but we know enough not to get ahead of ourselves, so let’s focus on the appetizer of one of those powerhouses facing a very good Wild team while the other tries to figure out a Blues team that looked awful for most of the season but has recently flipped the switch. By the way, the Blues have never played the Knights in the playoffs and somehow haven’t faced the Avalanche in 20 years, so if you’re a “fresh matchup” sort of fan, you’ll get your wish.

The East matchups remain up in the air, but there really aren’t any bad ones in play. We’re rooting for that Pens/Caps matchup, although that’s looking a little less likely now than it did a few days ago. No worries, though, because even if it doesn’t happen, we’ll get something cool. Caps/Bruins? It’s the Zdeno Chara revenge series. Penguins/Islanders? All sorts of Patrick Division baggage, plus some cap era bad blood. Penguins/Bruins? One of the most underrated rivalries in modern history. You can do this for just about any series that’s in play. OK, maybe Bruins/Islanders doesn’t have a ton of history, but we could at least make fun of Mike Milbury. The East should be great.

And then we get to the North, and the big one: the first Leafs/Canadiens matchup in over 40 years. We’re not locked in yet, because the Jets have decided to put third place back in play (and honestly, having the one team nobody in Canada hates be the one to blow a Toronto/Montreal series would be a great heel turn). But at this point, it’s at least likely that we’ll finally get the first Leafs/Habs series in a generation, which will splinter families and end friendships, the way all great hockey rivalries should. Mix in an Oilers/Jets reunion three decades after their one-sided Smythe rivalry, as we get to see if Connor McDavid can break the postseason scoring record in one series, and the North will be must-see TV unless they figure out a way to blow this.

I mean, just about all of that sounds pretty great. And sure, some of it might fall through, or end up being pushed back to the second round. Like we said, don’t get too invested. But it’s OK to start looking forward a little, if only because outside of Dallas and Nashville, we don’t have much to get excited about over the final two weeks.

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