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P.K. Subban, Green Day and World Cup of Hockey (Puck Daddy Countdown)

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(Ed. Note: The column formerly known as the Puck Daddy Power Rankings. Ryan Lambert takes a look at some of the biggest issues and stories in the NHL, and counts them down.)

5 – Revisiting the Subban trade

As we’re all aware by now, Elliotte Friedman published an eye-opening piece yesterday, highlighting the day Taylor Hall, Adam Larsson, PK Subban and Shea Weber were traded, and Steven Stamkos decided to stay in Tampa.

Most of what anyone wanted to say about all those decisions has been said and forgotten — was it really two-plus months ago already? — but the insight Friedman got from the GMs involved, teammates, and others was excellent. And more to the point, it confirmed a lot of what we probably already could have guessed about these moves.

First and foremost, it seems that the two trades were personality-driven first, and need-driven second. For instance, we got a lot of talk about how Taylor Hall had a “big personality” and how that wasn’t necessarily seen as good or bad in the room. It was, of course, seen as bad, because that’s clearly what made a top-tier left wing in the sport expendable in the Oilers’ search for a young defenseman signed to lowish-cost term. Again, we could have guessed that, but as Greg pointed out yesterday, it highlighted both the team’s desperation for blue line help and a lot of holes in Peter Chiarelli’s logic.

I mean, the Oilers didn’t even have that much interest in Subban because the asking price was too high, but trading Hall for Larsson made sense? Yeesh.

But what was far more interesting, of course, was all the talk around the Subban trade. Again, it was everything you thought went into the decision: Blaming Subban for the way last season went has apparently become something of an official sport.

It was the following quote from Carey Price, though, that’s very hard to parse:

“The way our game is structured and the way P.K. plays…we’re headed in a different direction. … P.K. is an offensive defenseman and a risk-taker. That’s made him successful, that’s the way he plays the game. He doesn’t want to change that and I respect that. I respect the way that he plays the game…his type of enthusiasm and his ability to raise fans out of their seats. That’s a special gift and something that not very many players are able to do. But the way we’re coached on our team, the way our team is structured, that’s not what were looking for. We’re looking for a steady type of defenseman that makes quick plays and is able to move the puck right away. Shea fits that bill perfectly.”

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I really can’t tell if that’s a shot at Subban for not wanting to adapt his style to what the Canadiens inexplicably want to do, or a shot at management for running a player like that out of town. But as you read the last thought, that Weber is “steady,” I lean more toward Price liking the Subban deal.

How truly bizarre.

4 – “Ah, So u dislike ‘Sand Knights’ just because the name is very bad? Do Tell. (fans get mad at me) Sorry. Im Sorry. Im trying to remove it”

So last week Bill Foley tells Nick Cotsonika all those bad names he registered for the Las Vegas team were fake and I was tricking people with them. More or less.

Hmm, makes sense. Because the argument against Sand Knights and all the other dopey ideas the team has been registering websites and so on was that no one could think they were good. Turns out maybe no one did. Of course, one wonders what the endgame of such subterfuge would actually be; what does Foley get out of people spending a week thinking he’s making an awful decision. Especially if, as he says, the league has already approved both the team’s preferred name and a secondary option.

And apparently the name won’t be “Aces” or “Scorpions.” Foley also says the whole thing about the London Knights not letting them just be the “Knights” wasn’t true. And that he never talked to the OHL team about such a move in the first place.

Which is weird because here’s Bill Foley telling Steve Carp of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “The London Knights own the name in Canada, and to acquire the name from London is not economically feasible. In the U.S., ‘Knights’ are fine. But we can’t use it in Canada.”

This whole thing is just weird. And the team’s not going to announce its actual (presumably suboptimal) name for another month-plus.

Very excited to see how many more iterations of “______ Knights” can be registered as misdirects between now and then.

3 – Green Day

So Green Day has been booked to open the World Cup of Hockey.

As far as the NHL’s tendency to book bands that haven’t been relevant in a while, this one tracks pretty well. Green Day has a new record coming out this year, but really only released five things in the previous 12 years, only one of which anyone really cared about (American Idiot, from 2004, was very cared-about), and the less said about the triple-album release in 2012, the better.

And while I’m not sure how a band that started in 1986 and has sold 75 million records can release anything 30 years later called “Revolution Radio,” I gotta say I can’t rip this band too hard.

Yeah, we’re gonna have to sit through whatever boring single they’re promoting with the new record, but man, what if they also play “Welcome to Paradise” and “Brain Stew?” That would be cool to all the 30-whatever-year-olds in the crowd.

Were it not for Dookie, many cool people would not be as cool as they are today, so trashing Green Day too hard should be strictly verboten. That album was a gateway drug in a way few albums of that era were. The same can be said for Metallica, who haven’t put out a good album since …And Justice For All (and that album will be 30 in less than two years!). Can’t dog on ’em. The early stuff is just too good.

So shout out to the NHL, for booking a band I actually kinda like. And shout out to Green Day, for putting out an album that changed my life when I was 11 and Alex Galchenyuk was still a week and a half from being alive.

Good(ish) stuff.

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Getty Images

2 – World Cup training camps

They’re open and I’m having fun thinking about hockey coming back and isn’t that so nice! The first exhibition game is frickin’ tomorrow! Sweden vs. Finland and North America vs. Europe are the highlights.

Let’s go!

1 – North America

I love these boys!

Here’s cool nice fellow Nathan MacKinnon after the first day of training camp wrapped:

Man, this is exactly what I wanted: A little bit of trash talk from the kids about how they’re more talented than other teams in the field. At first I thought maybe he was wrong about being the most skilled team at the tournament, then I saw the lines for the second day of camp:

Jonathan Drouin – Connor McDavid – Mark Scheifele

Johnny Gaudreau – Jack Eichel – Brandon Saad

Auston Matthews – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Nathan MacKinnon

Dylan Larkin/JT Miller – Sean Couturier – Vince Trocheck

I am extremely ready for that. Larkin as your fourth-line wing? Detroit’s ready to use the kid as its No. 1 center. This is wild. Canada is the only team that comes close in terms of pure skill, and I don’t think it’s quite there if we’re being honest.

This is the team to root for in this tournament. The only one. Here’s why:

  • If Canada wins, who cares? They were supposed to.

  • The US team is trash.

  • Sweden is very good but also do you think the Sedin twins are super-psyched about this tournament?

  • Finland has a lot of international success lately. Who cares, buddy?

  • Europe only exists because they couldn’t leave Anze Kopitar out of the tournament.

  • If you know anyone from the Czech Republic, the Czech team could call you up tomorrow.

  • Russia has KHL players on it and is therefore going to get creamed.

So yeah, let’s hope the kids actually pull this off. They’re going to be the try-hardest group in the field by what you’d have to imagine is a decent margin.

(Not ranked this week: Nothing.

Everything is good and I love you. Have a fun and safe week!!!)

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All statistics via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)