Habs and their fans will have to be satisfied with beating 3 of the better teams and at least winning the Campbell Bowl. That's not all bad.
NHL Playoff Thread
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No one expected the Habs to make it to the Stanley cup finals. They generated a lot of excitement across the country and most likely good TV ratings for CBC and Sportsnet. I know I wouldn’t have been watching a Vegas - Tampa Bay final series.
Since the world is much bigger than just TERB, I checked the reaction on social media.
1) Mostly favourable comments about the Hab's incredible playoff performance.
2) Some criticism of the Bolt's $98mm playoff payroll.
3) The usual Leaf bashing.
So ends the 2020-2921 NHL season. Enjoy your Summer.
1) Mostly favourable comments about the Hab's incredible playoff performance.
2) Some criticism of the Bolt's $98mm playoff payroll.
3) The usual Leaf bashing.
So ends the 2020-2921 NHL season. Enjoy your Summer.
Reports from the field is that the NHL will take "a look" at the cap rule for the playoffs.
Refereeing was atrocious. Anderson gets pulled down on a partial breakaway and no penalty or penalty shot. Bush league.
Social media critical of what the Bolts did. Meanwhile Kucherov acting like a sore winner.
Wha-aaaaaaa...... I’m sure every Game had 1 or 2 plays, that could have been called for a Penalty.....
Sometimes the Refs call them, and a lot of times they don’t.
This is the NHL...
“Critical”.... Why?
Oh wait, your Team didn’t Win... Wha-aaaaaaa
Kucherov....May have had too many Beers (maybe)
He spoke “His Truth”... you may not agree....Wha-aaaaaaa.
Each Season There can Only Be One Stanley Cup Winner...this Season 2020/2021 Winner...TBL
***14 DAYS UNTIL THE TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPICS***
The Tampa Bay cap issue is more so a fan understanding issue in my views.
I find the criticism of Tampa’s payroll ironic as many people don’t even understand what the over 18m metric means. It doesn’t mean they spent anywhere close to 18m more than other teams who were playing “fairly”.
People don’t realize the total payroll of most playoff teams are 5-12m above the cap line based on the exact same metric, because they legit put players on LTIR near the deadline to add players, buried a few million in the minors which saves 900k of cap space each time, and the biggest one is picked up players late in the year so they only absorbed around 30% of the salary. For example if you trade for an 8m guy, the other team retains half, and you only have him for 30% of the of the year. The cap hit is $1.2 milllion but when you start the playoffs under the metric they are using to come up with the payroll hit is 8 million — so that trade makes your payroll 6.8 million more than the cap line. And none of the above is close to illegal.
So all the other stuff is really bullshit that means nothing except for Kucherov. And let’s look at Kucherov. But first let’s consider other items:
Are people up in arms with the Islanders? When they lost Anders Lee to LTIR just before the deadline they had an extra 7 million of payroll spend and did. This made their total payroll well over the cap line. Is there an issue with that. If Mitch Marner had been hurt in April, do you think it would have been unfair for the Leafs to add Taylor Hall and others. I don’t see the issue.
The Leafs used the LTIR rule to help them add some bottom lineup players as did the Habs as they were so close to the line at the deadline, as did many others. The Leafs stretched out a few returns from injuries longer than necessary to stay under the line. So did other teams like Vegas. No issue with any of that?
Was Kucherov legitimately hurt? Of course he was. If you have a problem burying his contract on a legit LTIR claim, why are you not up in arms about Anders Lee?
Kucherov could have probably come back one month earlier. That is the only “cheat” here. This means about 2.5 million in salary. Tampa would have had to trade someone at the beginning of the year with a 2.5 million salary for him to come back whe he is ready.
So if the issue is Tampa delaying his return from injury to work the cap, many others did that this year including the Leafs and Vegas. I don’t meant to just pick on the Leafs other do it, it’s just that I am more aware of their situation. Of course it did not involve a star but it was the same concept. Let’s look at Riley Nash for example (even if he sucked). He couldn’t play in the regular season .. but isn’t it odd that he is now ready to go playoff time. It’s the exact same shenanigans that other teams did.
In realty the “cheating” was basically Tampa having a player that was getting paid about 2.5m for the entire season that should have been traded at the beginning of the year to create space once Kucherov was legit healthy come April. That was basically it.
And I am not getting riled up about it.
If the NHL wants to set up a rule that a player that goes on LTIR at any point of the year is ineligible that is fine. But that is not a rule for a reason.
I find the criticism of Tampa’s payroll ironic as many people don’t even understand what the over 18m metric means. It doesn’t mean they spent anywhere close to 18m more than other teams who were playing “fairly”.
People don’t realize the total payroll of most playoff teams are 5-12m above the cap line based on the exact same metric, because they legit put players on LTIR near the deadline to add players, buried a few million in the minors which saves 900k of cap space each time, and the biggest one is picked up players late in the year so they only absorbed around 30% of the salary. For example if you trade for an 8m guy, the other team retains half, and you only have him for 30% of the of the year. The cap hit is $1.2 milllion but when you start the playoffs under the metric they are using to come up with the payroll hit is 8 million — so that trade makes your payroll 6.8 million more than the cap line. And none of the above is close to illegal.
So all the other stuff is really bullshit that means nothing except for Kucherov. And let’s look at Kucherov. But first let’s consider other items:
Are people up in arms with the Islanders? When they lost Anders Lee to LTIR just before the deadline they had an extra 7 million of payroll spend and did. This made their total payroll well over the cap line. Is there an issue with that. If Mitch Marner had been hurt in April, do you think it would have been unfair for the Leafs to add Taylor Hall and others. I don’t see the issue.
The Leafs used the LTIR rule to help them add some bottom lineup players as did the Habs as they were so close to the line at the deadline, as did many others. The Leafs stretched out a few returns from injuries longer than necessary to stay under the line. So did other teams like Vegas. No issue with any of that?
Was Kucherov legitimately hurt? Of course he was. If you have a problem burying his contract on a legit LTIR claim, why are you not up in arms about Anders Lee?
Kucherov could have probably come back one month earlier. That is the only “cheat” here. This means about 2.5 million in salary. Tampa would have had to trade someone at the beginning of the year with a 2.5 million salary for him to come back whe he is ready.
So if the issue is Tampa delaying his return from injury to work the cap, many others did that this year including the Leafs and Vegas. I don’t meant to just pick on the Leafs other do it, it’s just that I am more aware of their situation. Of course it did not involve a star but it was the same concept. Let’s look at Riley Nash for example (even if he sucked). He couldn’t play in the regular season .. but isn’t it odd that he is now ready to go playoff time. It’s the exact same shenanigans that other teams did.
In realty the “cheating” was basically Tampa having a player that was getting paid about 2.5m for the entire season that should have been traded at the beginning of the year to create space once Kucherov was legit healthy come April. That was basically it.
And I am not getting riled up about it.
If the NHL wants to set up a rule that a player that goes on LTIR at any point of the year is ineligible that is fine. But that is not a rule for a reason.
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Excellent post as usual, Maurice. Just want to present a couple of articles on this issue.
The Tampa Bay Lightning Are Illegally Circumventing the Salary Cap - (couchguysports.com)
Tampa Bay Lightning Salary Cap $18 Million Circumvention – Overtime Heroics
First link is misinformed. It’s a shame that people with no clue on how to use numbers use them to write stuff.
if Kucherov comes back one month early as the writer suggests , it doesn’t mean Tampa had 9.5 million of extra players. His cap hit would have only been the time he was healthy. So close to 2.5 million. One could argue that is what Tampa was playing over the cap and should have traded such a player at the beginning of the year.
The Leafs delayed the returns of Anderson and Nash. Yet nobody is up in arms about that yet it just as illegal. They did the exact same thing with lesser players to squeeze extra players out of the cap. As I said I don’t mean to pick on the Leafs only because othe teams have done this as well.
To me the solution on the LTIR issue would be a hybrid one.
When a guy is placed on LTIR anytime during the season. you have up to 15 days to elect:
1) full salary cap exemption — but that player is then eligible for the playoffs
2) partial salary cap exemption if you elect that player will be fine for the playoffs — but that player will return to your cap at the earliest of the following dates (when they are healthy or 50% between the date of the injury and the end of the season)
Let’s apply this to Kucherov. If your star is legit injured at any point of the season you should get some cap relief. In the case of Kucherov, at beginning of season he goes on LTIR. The lightning elect option #2. So his salary will start going back on the cap mid season whether he is healthy or not.
When a guy is placed on LTIR anytime during the season. you have up to 15 days to elect:
1) full salary cap exemption — but that player is then eligible for the playoffs
2) partial salary cap exemption if you elect that player will be fine for the playoffs — but that player will return to your cap at the earliest of the following dates (when they are healthy or 50% between the date of the injury and the end of the season)
Let’s apply this to Kucherov. If your star is legit injured at any point of the season you should get some cap relief. In the case of Kucherov, at beginning of season he goes on LTIR. The lightning elect option #2. So his salary will start going back on the cap mid season whether he is healthy or not.
