SLBAM : NHL is a laughing stock with suspensions

What’s up gang. We want Florida… I love that song now. A little more serious, here’s my article of the week.

Having the exact answer, I think I’d make a bet on it, but unfortunately, I don’t. Will he ever be a member of the Montreal Canadiens? I sincerely believe so, if he really wants to come and play in Montreal as the rumours seem to persist.

With the end of the Jets’ season and, above all, the way the whole thing ended, I think it’s time for Winnipeg to sell the big pieces and start again on a nice little rebuild which, with the players in place, shouldn’t be too difficult if you’re going to look for young players and not just picks.

We’ve been seeing a lack of leadership in Winnipeg for a long time, and it’s time for that to change.

Getting back to PLD, if the Jets try to trade him, they’ll obviously go with the highest offer, which is perfectly normal. That’s when I don’t think the CH would be in the running to get him.

Imagine the scenario: the CH picks up PLD for next season, and when he becomes a free agent, he signs elsewhere. The Habs can’t afford that.

Also, the CH isn’t the only team that likes PLD, while several other teams would like to take a chance on him for a year, try to win and then sign him long-term.

So if I have to stick my neck out, I’d go safe and say no.

We could talk about red flags too, but I’m not here for that. Time will tell, but yes, I’d love to see him in the red, white and blue uniform, that’s for sure.

Is this good news? I think it’s great news. Both in real life, at least for now. We can even add Nikita Chibrikov to the list.

The fact that Miroshnichenko was able to sign with Washington is huge for Mishkov. Gritsyuk, whom I adored in the KHL and about whom I spoke to Bob, has just mentioned that he doesn’t want to return to OMSK.

Is the door open? There’s still a long way to go, but above all, we need to be able to get through customs and be present at training camp.

Coming back to Michkov, will he finally be in the top five? I wrote an article in response to a question that said, yes, if he’s 15th I’ll take him without hesitation, but it was mainly in response to the question as to whether he was outside the top 10.

Honestly, you’re the Habs, you’ve got the 5th overall pick and you’ve got a 2nd in the first round. You can’t pass up Michkov, I’m sorry. He’ll be here in 2-3-4 years at the worst, it doesn’t matter.

Not long ago, Mishkov’s nickname was the Connor Bedard of Russia. I still remember the same on social networks when the 2 were in the national championships representing their country.

This just goes to show once again how huge and deep this year’s draft is. It’s been said that this season’s top 5-6 is better than the first one that came out last year. That’s an understatement.

I was talking about this last week in the face of Derek Lalonde’s discussion of the Tampa Bay goalie’s weaknesses.

A week or so later, we have the excellent analyst Mike Kelly showing a statistic that all NHL teams have access to. It’s very similar to the statistic we had on the goalie in the first game at the National Championship.

This kind of information is crucial at some point, because you’ve got to get into the blue paint, you’ve got to put in traffic, you’ve got to take advantage of chances. Everyone knows this, and has since a young age.

On the other hand, having a visually beautiful board like this only reinforces the coach’s message. It’s just funny to see this post a few days after writing my article.

I’ll even add that I even thought Pietrangelo wouldn’t be suspended. That says a lot about the questioning of referees’ judgement at the moment.

And no, I’m not talking about the ones who talk on TV during games to get their comments. That’s what’s so boring about suspensions and penalties.

Take the high-sticking penalty, for example. We’re talking about two minutes if there’s no blood, and four minutes if there is. The gesture remains the same.

For Draisaitl, if he stays down and/or has a fracture (even if he does, the Oilers won’t mention it), Pietrangelo’s suspension should be longer. But since he doesn’t have an injury, we’re only talking about one game, which is totally ridiculous.

But on the other hand, looking at how Leon isn’t playing the same way is perhaps the turning point of the series too…

Prolongation

Finally, Johan Lundskog will be the next head coach of Adler Mannheim in the DEL, Deutsche Eishockey Liga. He’s a Canadian who finds a job in Europe after being fired by SC Bern.

I still have some questions in the bank for next week, I love it. I’ll see you next week with some new questions and some old ones that I couldn’t answer. Follow me on social networks @Mitch_Giguere.