(no subject)
Jan. 16th, 2026 11:00 am* Babygirl has been sent back down to the AHL. I would be distraught, but I doubt he'll be there long.
* There is a team-building aspect to hockey, the inter-league weirdness and contracts that I am not looking into right now. There is a lot to the sport and I am trying to take a balanced approach... except when it comes to arena conversion videos. I will watch footage of areas switching back and forth between rink mode endlessly.
But, it is weird to me that Canada, who are so serious about player development, pretty much force NHL teams to roster Canadian draftees early or lose them to their juniors teams. And sometimes that means keeping then on the NHL roster and just scratching them every night, so no ice time. Top Canadian talent don't get a stepping stone between juniors and NHL the way other prospects do. We need to either not play them while they train and bulk up with no real play, or let them be penalty bait. We've gotten goals off of how hard other teams go after our youngest player, but that's not great.
* There is a team-building aspect to hockey, the inter-league weirdness and contracts that I am not looking into right now. There is a lot to the sport and I am trying to take a balanced approach... except when it comes to arena conversion videos. I will watch footage of areas switching back and forth between rink mode endlessly.
But, it is weird to me that Canada, who are so serious about player development, pretty much force NHL teams to roster Canadian draftees early or lose them to their juniors teams. And sometimes that means keeping then on the NHL roster and just scratching them every night, so no ice time. Top Canadian talent don't get a stepping stone between juniors and NHL the way other prospects do. We need to either not play them while they train and bulk up with no real play, or let them be penalty bait. We've gotten goals off of how hard other teams go after our youngest player, but that's not great.

