JT's Milestone and Redrafts
Here's how my Thursday-Friday went.
Worked from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday. Had a brief shut-eye. Got up at 12:30 a.m. Friday for some late-night write-up (covering Middle East time zone). Stayed up through 5 a.m. for another story (European time zone). Woke up at 7:30 a.m., went back to sleep about 20 minutes later, got back up just around 11 a.m. Back at work by early afternoon. Another 1 a.m.-5 a.m. assignment on the horizon Saturday.
(I am finishing up this post at 3:30 a.m. Saturday.)
My sleep cycle has been turned upside down. I used to be able to handle this better when I was younger. Oh wells...
Anyway, I missed the first two periods of the Leafs' 4-2 win over the Devils today... which means I basically missed the best part of the game. The third period didn't have much action on either end, except for Mitch's empty-netter at the end.
We scored three times in the first period, including two by John Tavares. The first one was his career goal No. 300 but the next one was even prettier:
Some great passing, eh? Mitch throws the backhand cross-ice pass for Rielly, who pinched in from the point untouched. And instead of feeding it to Hyman crashing the net with two defenders on him, Rielly goes to the right circle for the wide-open JT.
Since I didn't watch the full game, I will just rant about Tavares and other random things today.
(I figure I'll be doing some more ranting on game days for the next couple of weeks because I'll have more of those midnight to 5 a.m. workdays coming up and will have to catch up on sleep in the morning.)
Earning His Keep
Last summer, Tavares signed a seven-year, $77 million contract to play for his hometown team, a team he grew up rooting for as a child. Even before he stepped on the ice in a Leaf uniform, this was considered the biggest free agent signing in the salary cap era in the NHL.
And just about halfway into his first season, that deal looks pretty good, I'd say.
There are contracts that are so outrageously huge that no athlete would ever live up to them. It's difficult to justify those deals, anyway.
What does JT have to do to make his deal count? At least in Year 1, he's been doing everything the team would have wanted from him, and then some.
There are those gaudy numbers. He ranks second in the NHL in goals with 29, three back of Ovechkin. JT has never been a prolific goal scorer. His career high is 38 from 2014-2015 (Though in the lockout-shortened 2012-2013 season, he had 28 in 48 games and had an outside shot at reaching 50). I think this season has unlocked his goal-scoring potential even more and has proven how important it is for JT to have half-decent linemates for a change.
He basically made a career out of making his linemates rich in Long Island. And now he's benefitting so much from playing with Mitch (and as it happens, with Mitch piling up assists and points, looks like he's gonna get rich soon, too).
My first extensive look at Tavares the player came during the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. I'd only caught a few Isles games here and there, and he was hurt at the 2014 Olympics. But I watched every Canada game at the World Cup and came away really impressed with JT's play.
Before I ever thought about starting this blog, I used Facebook to wax poetic about the awesomeness of Canadian hockey. And for almost every review, I wrote something like, "John Tavares was the best player for Canada" or "Tavares is in midseason form already."
So what makes him so great? He's just a rock solid, textbook hockey center who does a lot of things well. He can obviously score goals, but he doesn't mind getting his feet/hands dirty doing it. He works the corners, goes to the net, has great hand-eye coordination for tip-ins, can really anticipate the play as it develops, etc.
I've never met him in person, but he comes across as a pro's pro who doesn't have to be the rah-rah guy in the room because his actions on and off the ice speak loudly enough. Not the most fun quote machine, to be sure, but a lot of hockey players are like that.
And I see some similiarities between JT and Kawhi. Aside from the fact that they're both outstanding players in their respective leagues, they exude quiet professionalism, they keep their heads down and do their jobs, and they don't ever seem to get too excited or too rattled.
Redrafts
After learning that JT was the first player from the 2009 draft to reach 300 goals, I studied that class. He was the No. 1 overall pick and has been the best player from that year throughout his career.
Doing redrafts is a fun, time-killing exercise for sports fans. So I just did a quick redraft of the top 10 picks in 2009. Their original positions in parentheses.
1. John Tavares (1)
2. Victor Hedman (2)
3. Matt Duchene (3)
4. Ryan Ellis (11)
5. Evander Kane (4)
6. Oliver Ekman-Larsson (6)
7. Nazem Kadri (7)
8. Ryan O'Reilly (33)
9. Brayden Schenn (5)
10. Kyle Palmieri (26)
Not a particularly deep draft there. The first two have been very good NHLers and Duchene has been a solid forward as well. My top three don't change, with a couple of late picks making their way into the top 10.
I listed 3 defensemen in the top 6. Hedman is a no-brainer as the reigning Norris Trophy winner. Ekman-Larsson has been the top goal scorer from the blueline in this group but he's a career -93. Ellis is another puck-moving D-man but he's been +83.
More than a few first rounders didn't pan out, but that's what drafts are like.
Another common ground between JT and Kawhi? Both are the best players from their draft classes. Now, you could argue that Kyrie Irving has been better than Kawhi from their 2011 draft (and Kyrie was the top pick) but since I am so biased and this is a Toronto sports blog and Kyrie has played for the hated Cavs, I will stick to my assertion.
While I am at it, let's do redraft for the top 10 selections in the NBA in 2011, too.
1. Kawhi Leonard (15)
2. Kyrie Irving (1)
3. Kemba Walker (9)
4. Klay Thompson (11)
5. Jimmy Butler (30)
6. Tobias Harris (19)
7. Nikola Vucevic (16)
8. Nikola Mirotic (23)
9. Isaiah Thomas (60)
10. Enes Kanter (3)
This was a fairly deep draft. Thomas was the very last pick and he had a great two-year stretch with Boston before injuries got the best of him. Would have been higher if he'd stayed healthy and sustained that level of play.
All K's in the top 4. I am taking Kemba over Klay because I think he brings more value as PG (kind of like how centers have more value than wingers in hockey). Maybe Butler is a better player than Klay, but he has been a locker room cancer.
Loved the way Vucevic's game has evolved, as he has gone from a dinosaur center to a stretch 5 who can shoot the 3-ball.
Pains me to drop Valanciunas out of the top 10 here but he's clearly not a better play than anyone up there. JV was picked 10 spots ahead of Kawhi. I don't know if these two have ever talked about that, now that they're teammates.
Anyway, there's one big difference between Tavares and Leonard. One may leave after this season, the other will be here for a while, maybe long enough to win something big.
And since I didn't mention the name of the prize/trophy, I didn't technically jinx it.
Worked from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday. Had a brief shut-eye. Got up at 12:30 a.m. Friday for some late-night write-up (covering Middle East time zone). Stayed up through 5 a.m. for another story (European time zone). Woke up at 7:30 a.m., went back to sleep about 20 minutes later, got back up just around 11 a.m. Back at work by early afternoon. Another 1 a.m.-5 a.m. assignment on the horizon Saturday.
(I am finishing up this post at 3:30 a.m. Saturday.)
My sleep cycle has been turned upside down. I used to be able to handle this better when I was younger. Oh wells...
Anyway, I missed the first two periods of the Leafs' 4-2 win over the Devils today... which means I basically missed the best part of the game. The third period didn't have much action on either end, except for Mitch's empty-netter at the end.
We scored three times in the first period, including two by John Tavares. The first one was his career goal No. 300 but the next one was even prettier:
Some great passing, eh? Mitch throws the backhand cross-ice pass for Rielly, who pinched in from the point untouched. And instead of feeding it to Hyman crashing the net with two defenders on him, Rielly goes to the right circle for the wide-open JT.
Since I didn't watch the full game, I will just rant about Tavares and other random things today.
(I figure I'll be doing some more ranting on game days for the next couple of weeks because I'll have more of those midnight to 5 a.m. workdays coming up and will have to catch up on sleep in the morning.)
Earning His Keep
Last summer, Tavares signed a seven-year, $77 million contract to play for his hometown team, a team he grew up rooting for as a child. Even before he stepped on the ice in a Leaf uniform, this was considered the biggest free agent signing in the salary cap era in the NHL.
And just about halfway into his first season, that deal looks pretty good, I'd say.
There are contracts that are so outrageously huge that no athlete would ever live up to them. It's difficult to justify those deals, anyway.
What does JT have to do to make his deal count? At least in Year 1, he's been doing everything the team would have wanted from him, and then some.
There are those gaudy numbers. He ranks second in the NHL in goals with 29, three back of Ovechkin. JT has never been a prolific goal scorer. His career high is 38 from 2014-2015 (Though in the lockout-shortened 2012-2013 season, he had 28 in 48 games and had an outside shot at reaching 50). I think this season has unlocked his goal-scoring potential even more and has proven how important it is for JT to have half-decent linemates for a change.
He basically made a career out of making his linemates rich in Long Island. And now he's benefitting so much from playing with Mitch (and as it happens, with Mitch piling up assists and points, looks like he's gonna get rich soon, too).
My first extensive look at Tavares the player came during the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. I'd only caught a few Isles games here and there, and he was hurt at the 2014 Olympics. But I watched every Canada game at the World Cup and came away really impressed with JT's play.
Before I ever thought about starting this blog, I used Facebook to wax poetic about the awesomeness of Canadian hockey. And for almost every review, I wrote something like, "John Tavares was the best player for Canada" or "Tavares is in midseason form already."
So what makes him so great? He's just a rock solid, textbook hockey center who does a lot of things well. He can obviously score goals, but he doesn't mind getting his feet/hands dirty doing it. He works the corners, goes to the net, has great hand-eye coordination for tip-ins, can really anticipate the play as it develops, etc.
I've never met him in person, but he comes across as a pro's pro who doesn't have to be the rah-rah guy in the room because his actions on and off the ice speak loudly enough. Not the most fun quote machine, to be sure, but a lot of hockey players are like that.
And I see some similiarities between JT and Kawhi. Aside from the fact that they're both outstanding players in their respective leagues, they exude quiet professionalism, they keep their heads down and do their jobs, and they don't ever seem to get too excited or too rattled.
Redrafts
After learning that JT was the first player from the 2009 draft to reach 300 goals, I studied that class. He was the No. 1 overall pick and has been the best player from that year throughout his career.
Doing redrafts is a fun, time-killing exercise for sports fans. So I just did a quick redraft of the top 10 picks in 2009. Their original positions in parentheses.
1. John Tavares (1)
2. Victor Hedman (2)
3. Matt Duchene (3)
4. Ryan Ellis (11)
5. Evander Kane (4)
6. Oliver Ekman-Larsson (6)
7. Nazem Kadri (7)
8. Ryan O'Reilly (33)
9. Brayden Schenn (5)
10. Kyle Palmieri (26)
Not a particularly deep draft there. The first two have been very good NHLers and Duchene has been a solid forward as well. My top three don't change, with a couple of late picks making their way into the top 10.
I listed 3 defensemen in the top 6. Hedman is a no-brainer as the reigning Norris Trophy winner. Ekman-Larsson has been the top goal scorer from the blueline in this group but he's a career -93. Ellis is another puck-moving D-man but he's been +83.
More than a few first rounders didn't pan out, but that's what drafts are like.
Another common ground between JT and Kawhi? Both are the best players from their draft classes. Now, you could argue that Kyrie Irving has been better than Kawhi from their 2011 draft (and Kyrie was the top pick) but since I am so biased and this is a Toronto sports blog and Kyrie has played for the hated Cavs, I will stick to my assertion.
While I am at it, let's do redraft for the top 10 selections in the NBA in 2011, too.
1. Kawhi Leonard (15)
2. Kyrie Irving (1)
3. Kemba Walker (9)
4. Klay Thompson (11)
5. Jimmy Butler (30)
6. Tobias Harris (19)
7. Nikola Vucevic (16)
8. Nikola Mirotic (23)
9. Isaiah Thomas (60)
10. Enes Kanter (3)
This was a fairly deep draft. Thomas was the very last pick and he had a great two-year stretch with Boston before injuries got the best of him. Would have been higher if he'd stayed healthy and sustained that level of play.
All K's in the top 4. I am taking Kemba over Klay because I think he brings more value as PG (kind of like how centers have more value than wingers in hockey). Maybe Butler is a better player than Klay, but he has been a locker room cancer.
Loved the way Vucevic's game has evolved, as he has gone from a dinosaur center to a stretch 5 who can shoot the 3-ball.
Pains me to drop Valanciunas out of the top 10 here but he's clearly not a better play than anyone up there. JV was picked 10 spots ahead of Kawhi. I don't know if these two have ever talked about that, now that they're teammates.
Anyway, there's one big difference between Tavares and Leonard. One may leave after this season, the other will be here for a while, maybe long enough to win something big.
And since I didn't mention the name of the prize/trophy, I didn't technically jinx it.
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