29 thoughts on “January 21, 2017: Tumbleweeds”

  1. Best goal differential in the Western Conference.

    1. Minnesota (+48)
    2. San Jose (+17)
    3. Chicago (+13)

    That's a 31-goal difference over 45 games. This team has been unreal.

    1. Most goals scored: Western Conference.

      1. Minnesota (150)
      2. Edmonton (144)
      3. Winnipeg (140)

      Fewest goals allowed: Western Conference.

      1. Minnesota (102)
      2. San Jose (107)
      3. Los Angeles (117)

      Apparently the key to a great goal differential is to score a bunch and not give up very many.

      1. So what you're saying is that the inevitable Minnesota-esque playoff collapse will be particularly devastating?

        1. Probably true.

          The thing about the NHL is that over and over again, the playoffs are a completely separate season from the regular season.

          A great first half means even less in the NHL than about any other sport that I can think of.

          1. The only thing about first half of the season is that you bank standings points so you can lose a bunch of games later and sneak into the playoffs.

          2. That's some good hedging. But yeah, even though I don't follow the nhl, it's really noticeable how different the playoffs are.

            In light of this success of the Wild, I might have jump on the bandwagon. One thing, though, that's kept me from doing that is the thuggery that used to be fairly prevalent. From what I this year,it sounds like that's not really a thing anymore and fights are way, way down and it's a more open and free flowing game. Is that accurate?

            1. I think I've seen fights in every Wild game I've watched this year. Lots of "praise" for Chris Stewart from the clueless bozos on FSN.

              1. Adding: that sounds harsh. Stewart's the best fourth liner I can remember the Wild having in a long time, but that's not what they're praising

                1. I feel like there's been a little more of it the last few games, and the praise has been irritating. At the same time, I feel like it's largely been situations where the other teams have been specifically instigating, and the Wild have been on the defensive. And last game the announcers had the good sense to suggest that engaging in thuggery was getting away from the Wild's game and that it wouldn't serve them well.

                  So, in short, there is still some thuggery in the NHL, but I don't find the Wild to be overly guilty, and it is noticeably less for me than other years.

      2. The Wild have scored all those goals yet no player shows up in the Top 20 Goals Scored leaderboard, 1 in the Assists, and none in the Points.

  2. I am excited for this last chapter for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine.

    I'd like to think that with Deadpool and Guardians, (and, of course, Watchmen) we've now turned the corner somewhat, such that superhero movies can edge out of the narrow confines of explosion-and-spectacle-driven genre flick and be seen as storytelling. But that's probably asking too much.

      1. I've seen a few people on Twitter say that League Pass is awful. Games cut out, archived games not available when they are supposed to be. Archived games cut out.

        Heck of a game. KAT 32-12-7 dimes- 4 blocks. It was nice to see Dunn make some buckets.

        1. I had League Pass the year before I moved back. Servers were hit-and-miss. Nice interface, bad infrastructure, apparently. From everything I heard, the problems used to be much worse still.

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