This past Sunday:
Last night:
There's two ways to view that rant, as well as the polarizing play(s) that inspired it. The first being that Devan Dubnyk is arguing against an entirely legal goal being scored against him, as Ryan Johansen moving at a pace that would make the tortoise assume the role of the hare isn't the same as Ryan Johansen coming to a complete stop. Even the most desperate cop waiting around the most blind corner from the most unnecessary yield sign in looking to fulfill the most strict quota wouldn't be enough of a dick to determine that to be a discernible enough difference. However, there's still technically a difference and it's one that, by the letter of a lazy ass law, accurately allows for the call on the ice to stand. The second being that Devan Dubnyk is standing up for goaltenders everywhere - after far too long, might I add - in calling out a bush league tactic that requires a lack of shame more so than a ton of skill in drastically tipping the scales in favor of the shooter in what's supposed to be an equitable one-on-one matchup. Going so slow that a frail grandmother would use her walker to brush by you in an audible huff if you were in any setting other than NHL ice doesn't just remove whatever insanely slight semblance of game-like circumstances might otherwise exist during the shootout. It also creates an asinine competitive advantage during an event of which the only redeemable quality is the head-to-head competitiveness. Those viewpoints aren't mutually exclusive, as they are both very much true. The shootout sucks, and players looking for any cheap and easy way to find success in it sucks even more. What you watched above is basically gimmick-ception, except nowhere near as clever or innovative as any one aspect of the movie being referenced. Ryan Johansen is a great player, but in those clips he's just a dude that doesn't mind resorting to a half-empty bag of borderline bullshit to score on a breakaway. Goaltending is almost entirely predicated on taking away time and space, and making a zamboni look like Connor McDavid gifts time and (relative) space to the shooter in spades. That doesn't make it illegal, but it does make it lame, as skating like a 6 year old with a dump in his pants takes an obnoxiously slow, mildly constipated shit all over the sprit of one of the shootout's only rules. In my opinion, we are about as many years removed from being able to justify allowing a slow-motion charade as we are removed from a skills competition being an enjoyable way to break a tie in a team sport of which there is now far too much talent to only have two guys on the ice at once. I don't even care that Devan Dubnyk only did so out of self interest, because someone had to say it.
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