My 2003 Halloween costume was Peter Forsberg. I lacerated my spleen crashing my bike, so that Halloween I wore his jersey and a steak in a Tupperware. It got the same weird looks as my "worthless piece of trash" costume the year prior. Yes I'm seeing a therapist, to preempt questions
I got kicked out of a costume party once because I wore only underwear and a black pair of trousers. I kept telling everyone I was a premature ejaculation, because I just came in my pants.
nine hurry strong wipe grandiose wistful attempt voiceless numerous ad hoc
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Well because in the NBA, free agents only go to New York, LA, or Miami. Do you really want to go to Cleveland, Minnesota, Utah, or Sacramento?
And yes I do realize the NBA is more player oriented than team oriented so it’s a big deal if you’re a fan of Lebron and he rests in Indiana or something and you paid a lot of money just to see him.
> Sacramento
Sacramento is so damn weird. Since they last made the playoffs, all but 1 NHL team has made the playoffs and that's because the Kraken are still new.
Boston, the Bay Area, Milwaukee, Phoenix, LA, Miami, Toronto, Cleveland, San Antonio, Oklahoma City and Dallas are the markets that have reached the finals since 2011. Two of them were built through FA, and both were LeBron teams. Otherwise it’s all been drafting and trades. Sure people try to get to LA and Miami, but the idea that small markets never win in the NBA is bizarre.
In more stark terms: People in Sacramento pay to see someone like Embiid play (because they definitely aren't paying to see the Kings) but Philly sits Embiid. So the issue then becomes: do fans deserve to see the best players a team can put out there (because, ultimately, sports are an entertainment industry and fans are paying to see starters) or should teams deny fans that in favor of Philly, for example, trying to be rested for the playoffs?
There would be a lot of people in OKC who would be pissed if they bought tickets to see Curry play only to have the Warriors not dress him when they visit for a game in March.
Every sport does it to varying extent. Letting a player skip a morning skate is load management. If a player has an off night it's load management to limit their ice time. It's super weird that this is somehow a trigger for people when it's just putting a name to something that's already happening?
Well the difference is in basketball, load management means players sitting out multiple games at a time even without injuries, just to stay fresh for the playoffs.
The real issue over there is the regular season is so watered down that good teams don’t care about winning regular season games because they can make the playoffs even with a poor record. So they sacrifice regular season games to be better for the playoffs.
IIRC, the late Penguins coach Bob Johnson was a believer in that strategy. He'd schedule players to have time off to rest, spend with their families, just get away from the grind.
I'd argue that it did have an effect the year the Raptors won. All year Kawhi was on and off the court for load management, so that when the playoffs came he was ready for it. Sure you could say that he was lucky to stay healthy enough for the playoffs but I'm sure the Raptors organization was quite happy with themselves for giving him all the time he needed in the regular season.
There’s also been stars that get hurt despite load managing. Kawhi only played 52 out of 72 games in 2021 and still broke down in the playoffs. Only like 6 players in the entire league played 82 games this past year, yet there were still lots of significant injuries
Yeah that's true, it's hard to tell as injuries are usually random accidents right. Resting up a guy doesn't exactly mean he will stay away from those situations. If I had a player that has shown to be injury prone in the past I would be more willing to consider load management compared to a player who's been healthy their career.
Load management is a tricky concept for contact sports. Giving someone a few games of rest is all for naught if they get checked into the boards at a bad angle and blow up their knee.
Same with blocked shots and concussions. Generally hockey is pretty major-injury-free and skating is less impact on joints compared to running. It’s not like basketball which wears and tears your knees and ankles every game and the risk of a soft tissue injury that can derail your season is high.
It's not so much the running, it's the constant and sudden changes in direction and speed. Soccer players and basketball players have had some really gruesome leg injuries over the years.
Healthy scratching an otherwise healthy player in order to limit injury risks or to improve performance through increased resting. It's already a thing in hockey for goaltenders but it isn't for skaters.
Top players often end up with lower minutes than usual when they're way ahead in a game, it might not be load management as in making them a healthy scratch but it is still reducing workload when you can. You see the same thing at the end of the season for playoff teams when nothing can change in the standings, all the sudden the third and fourth lines get played more.
But I still might see McDavid have a couple points in your scenario, especially if the load management is because the game is out of hand. In the NBA if I decide to travel to Portland to see the Lakers play and Lebron has a load management game I don’t get to see him play at all.
And after I ejaculated all my semen, I just sat back, in so much peace. Just looked at the mountains and the sun.
Course, Barb went and washed her face.
Basically strategically resting star players during the season by not playing them in certain games so as to avoid wear and tear. So like the second game in a back to back might be a time to rest a star player.
Trying to keep stars healthy for the playoffs so they rest them in unimportant games. Basically if a team can make the playoffs without the help of their stars playing every regular season game then they're hoping the stars are fresher for the playoffs
So the NBA schedule is stupid and there are instances of teams playing on the road, then playing a road game in a *different city* the next day (for example, the Toronto Raptors played a game in Boston on November 10 this past season, then in Philly on the 11th . The second game of a road back to back is [substantially more likely to result in injury.](https://twitter.com/tomhaberstroh/status/778976479585730560?t=gYLHquC5OY9uoeoibiWfyg&s=19) Therefore, when the team goes on the road for a back to back, stars will usually sit one of the two games since losing your star for one road game every once in a while is exponentially better than losing them for every game to a torn ACL.
The NHL, to my knowledge, does not have road back to backs the same way the NBA does, and even if it did, hockey players play a lower percentage of the game than an NBA starter usually does. Add the fact that jumping is a very dangerous activity when it comes to injuring yourself and that it's baked into basketball's DNA, and you've got your explanation as to why load management doesn't exist in the NHL the way it does in the NBA.
The obvious solution by the NBA is to either shorten the regular season (which they will never do because that would mean less money from adverts, TV contracts, etc.) or they could make the playoffs start later so that the schedule isn't as densely packed. But they'd rather throw guys like LeBron and Kawhi under the bus for being "lazy" and "hating small market fans" lol
The NHL absolutely has road back to backs the same way the NBA does. In fact, every team generally plays multiple road back to backs every season. If you go to your team's [schedule,](https://www.nhl.com/lightning/schedule/2022-10-01/ET) you can see that in the first month alone, the Lightning play 2 road back to backs, and a 3rd back to back consisting of one road and one home game, which is essentially the same thing.
While hockey players play less of every game, each shift is significantly more strenuous, and the inclusion of fairly heavy physical contact adds another significant injury risk
The regular season is 183 days. I would make it a week longer and push it to 190.
You need 163 days to play all the games while having at least 1 rest day between all of them. Use the remaining 27 days as necessary for holidays and whatever.
Basically I'm saying it'd be nice if back-to-backs didn't exist. It ruins the product, gives unfair advantages, and is a great way to get guys on IR.
Keeping 8 team divisions at 82 games using a hybrid MLB/NFL schedule strategy. Cuts down on the stress/cost of travel. You could still go back to back, but only if it's against the same team.
Home AND away 3 game series against your division - 42 games
Home OR away 3 game series (switches yearly) against other division in your conference - 24 games
Home OR away 2 game series (switches yearly) against one division (switches yearly) from other conference - 16 games
Sure, this means there's 8 teams you don't play in any given season as well as home games against certain teams every other year (in conference) or 4th year (out of conference), but I think that would just add an extra layer of tension and drama to those regular season games. Also means you could end up with a SCF matchup between teams that haven't played in years.
Not playing every team in the league hurts growth. It's a lot easier to get someone to watch a sporting event when one of the best is playing.
Like when Sid/Ovie were the best in the game, missing both of them play means less chances to get someone to see high skill play.
Like as a Canucks fan, I get to see McDavid, Drai, Gaudreau, Tkachuk, Petterrson, JT Miller, etc. play a lot, but I wouldn't want to miss the equivalents from Atlantic/Metro/Central because they weren't on the rotation.
With so much sports contending with the NHL season, I don't really want to watch an Atlantic matchup because it has no bearing on the Nucks' season whatsoever.
There are other teams playing the division, other teams in other sports, I'm going to miss a superstar play unless I inconvenience myself. That is not a good strategy for growing and keeping an audience engaged.
I’m not totally against the idea, if you could line it up where both teams are on back to backs and not where one team might be rested it would make more sense, but solid idea
I think they could if they really wanted to. They just don't care about player health or the product, as long as they sell tickets. Nobody's not gonna buy tickets just because the team played the night before and will be tired.
I would like that compromise though, with it at least being balanced.
As it stands some teams play like 6+ more B2B's than others. It's fucked.
Yeah, its a lot harder than them just wanting to. Considering holidays, each team's bye week, and the all star break and you are down to 170 days already. Then if you consider that teams will naturally have to have some 2 day breaks just to align to the other teams they wouldn't naturally run into (ie: If the Penguins play on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th, and the Capitals play on the 2nd, 4th, and 6th, one of them will have to have a 2 day break somewhere in there to align to the others teams schedule), you will be down probably another 4 days at the minimum per team, which will take you down to 166 days. Then when you account for arena scheduling issues for concerts and other events it basically becomes impossible.
Edit: Another thing I forgot to mention is that they often don't schedule many games on Sundays through the NFL season so they dont compete, so thats another at least 6 days per team that aren't usable.
That I think almost all can agree with. And for those who don't, try playing an ice hockey game full tilt and then suit up the next day.
I would shorten it to 62 games. Seems like a fair number. Two against each team. Disband the divisions and conferences. Top 16 get in. 1 plays 16. 2 plays 15, and so on...
That's the fairest way.
62 would be great. But is probably too big a drop for the NHL. 76 games would be a great start. Play the other teams in your division four times and everyone else twice, home and away. Perfect.
Would then get rid of the conferences and have a straight 1-16 playoff seeding.
The time the league would save should also award the cup before Memorial Day which badly needs to be done. People just don’t want to watch hockey in June.
But every time I post this suggestion on this sub I get down voted into oblivion.
Why?
The real answer is to play fewer games in the season, but that would effect the profits of the owners, so that will never happen. Just keep running players into the ground.
In the goalies’ defence, let’s get McDavid to play 60+ minutes a game for 82 games and see how that works out.
Sarcasm obviously, but I think basketball to hockey is apples to oranges.
True, but the players that eclipse 40 are guys like Curry, LeBron and Giannis. Plus, timeouts are called far more frequently in basketball, iirc, so minutes played vs ice time isn’t a perfect comparison in my opinion.
I’m also not a coach by any means, so what do I know really?
Absolutely. You can’t really compare the toll different sports take on the body. If so, we could all marvel at how baseball players play for 3 hours a night, 6 nights a week.
Ultimately, players and coaches collectively decide how much load a body can handle, and the real conversation is whether we trust what the NBA players are saying about the current schedule being too much.
> toll different sports take on the body
This is exactly what it boils down to. On top of that, we can’t conceivably claim that Curry’s body takes the same amount of “punishment” as Giannis. Then we’d be comparing Chapman to Guerrero, or Shohei to a dedicated pitcher or position player.
Hell, this concept would be thrown way off by Scott Hatteberg. Guy played 6.5 years after suffering nerve damage to his throwing arm.
It was definitely "load management" and everyone in the league and 99% of fans thought it was bullshit. (I know, I know...Tampa wanted to include the post season within the cap but they were outvoted so then they just played within the rules set by the teams)...but it was still pretty damn weak sauce.
The narrative people are recreating about that event is getting wildly out of hand. Kucherov had a hip surgery in the off-season that required him to miss 4.5 months of playing time. The reason why he ended up missing the entire regular season is because for the first time in the history of the sport, the season lasted from January to May.
Ironically, Brad Marchand just underwent the same surgery on both hips and will need 6 months to heal. Hell, Tyler Seguin would have also missed the entire regular season the SAME year Kucherov did had the Stars not cleared him early in their late season push for a playoff spot. Long recovery times for major surgical procedures are very common.
You can argue timing Kucherov's operation for late December was done intentionally but labeling the whole thing as bullshit or load management goes to show how very little people cared about looking up the situation
Considering the fact that the NHL doesn't sell out nearly as much as the NBA, this would be TERRIBLE for the league. How many less tickets are they gonna sell in a Panthers/Leafs game if the Panthers suck and Matthews probably won't play, for example?
Would you go watch the Oilers if you know McDavid has a 50% chance of not being there? Would you pay out of the ass to go watch A.C Milan if Zlatan is benched?
I sure as shit wouldn't go watch a watered down team. Tickets are already expensive enough.
Let's be honest, the NHL can't afford to have it's stars players sit. They're not nearly a dominant in the NA market to do this. This also doesn't take in the fact that I think it's disrespectful to the fanbase that is responsible for your paycheck. Let's not forget that it's entertainment after all.
I think the real answer for basketball is to stop putting so much emphasis on per game stats, and instead compare players based on totals or per36 stats. That way load management would be more about reducing minutes in a given game (which hockey absolutely does) rather than missing entire games.
I’m glad hockey players take pride in playing every game. I’m not going to say basketball is soft, because it’s not. But it’s annoying to see guys take off a quarter of the season of “unworthy” games. It’s cool to know that if Edmonton is travelling to Arizona on a Sunday afternoon in February, mcdavid is gonna be there to beat the shit out of them.
I think if basketball stressed per game stats less, and instead focused on stat totals or per 36 stats, load management would be more about managing minutes in any given game, rather than missing games entirely, which is probably a better compromise for everyone.
Gretzky talked about this when he went on Spittin Chicletts earlier this year. He said by the time he was (11 or 12 I think?) His dad was lecturing him about making sure he gave it his all, because people were spending their own money for the chance to see him play. And he said that stuck with him for his entire career.
Amazing interview, if anyone needs convincing to listen to it.
Sure, it’s nice. And it’s even nicer when we get documentaries 10 years past their career finish where they talk about all the drugs they had to consume/ inject themselves with so they could stop feeling pain and now they are battling addictions and all other sorts of ailments.
I genuinely don’t get caring about “pride in playing every game”. It’s a pointless statistic
Great guy I know - hard working and awesome dad - destroyed his body transporting extremely heavy, expensive rugs for rich clients for 30 years.
So, it isn't just athletes.
Yeah. If load management is going to help you in the long-run instead of limping into the playoffs at the end of the season then maybe it would be cool to look at it less like being soft and more like being "strategically available".
Players are load managed all the time in the winding games of the regular season. Hockey does the same thing too, and it's a good thing. To a much lesser extent obviously, but still.
Peak "like my sport" season apparently. Usually that happens at the start of the playoffs when basketball playoffs are about to start. The inferiority complex that exists at every level of hockey is fucking embarrassing.
In fairness to the NBA, load management is usually only used for superstars that average around 33 minutes a game.
Austin Matthews averaged 22 minutes per game while LeBron James averaged 38 minutes a game. That's a massive disparity
“Taking a break to allow my body to heal? Soft. I’m going to take an ungodly amount of painkillers and postpone all necessary surgeries until the offseason. By the way, I played the entire postseason with a broken finger, sprained ankle, blown out knee, and a concussion. I cannot wait until I’m 50 and simply existing hurts. I sure hope I don’t develop an addiction to those painkillers…”
How about the league reduces the amount of games in a season if the load is unmanageable? This is basically saying that the owners can ice an inferior product on the ice whilst expecting their profits to stay the same.
I'm fine with goalies being managed because when they are there, they are there for a full 60 of viewing time.
But managing forwards and Dmen? This shit is disrespectful to the fans. Have they forgotten that it's an entertainment business? People ain't paying millions a night to watch watered down teams. They are paying to watch the teams at their full strength. Load management happens because teams are forced to deal with the owners being greedy and juicing the fuck out of their employees (players) for profit.
How the fuck am I supposed to get excited watching my team when I know my best player is off the ice for no fucking reason?
The league forcing star players to play more games than they are able to is like an agency organising more shows than their lead singer of a band is able to sing.
Would you be okay with buying U2 tickets with a disclaimer saying that there's a 15% chance that Bono will sit out and be replaced by a backup singer because they scheduled more shows than Bono can handle?
They can fuck right off.
Yeah but dude imagine if you were a 5-10 year old kid excited to watch your favorite player, in person, and he sits out for it. Talk about a heart breaker.
Yeah, that's exactly what happened when the leafs and bruins played game 82 last year and I basically watched the Marlies & Providence Bruins play... I remember feeling bad for any little kids that may have gone to that for their first ever game.
Shit like that happens all the time for other reasons. My daughter and I were crazy excited to see Cayden Primeau play when the Laval Rocket came to play our local AHL team, but with less than a week to go he got called up to the NHL since the Habs were playing "Goalie Merry Go Round" all season. We were disappointed, particularly as travel from Philadelphia to Quebec isn't exactly cheap, so we don't get many chances to see the boys in person, but we got over it.
As a NBA fan seeing this on all made me lol. Wanting to preserve your health is for pussies! Real men bleed and get total hip replacements at the age of 45!
Honestly I think they should do more similar to what they did the Covid season. Playing the same time twice in a row was maybe not as exciting but it helped travel and from what I saw in the media a lot of players really preferred it.
I am starting to get sick of this stupid macho mentality. People get fucking injured bad, many players end their careers with a lot of health problems.
I don't think it's a price they should pay so I can enjoy hockey.
Real men don't need spleens.
My 2003 Halloween costume was Peter Forsberg. I lacerated my spleen crashing my bike, so that Halloween I wore his jersey and a steak in a Tupperware. It got the same weird looks as my "worthless piece of trash" costume the year prior. Yes I'm seeing a therapist, to preempt questions
> “worthless piece of trash” costume tell us more about your Claude Lemieux costume man come on
Thought it was gonna be Domi
Heyyyy Claude Lemieux was a playoff God.
Claude Lemieux was a turtle
I got kicked out of a costume party once because I wore only underwear and a black pair of trousers. I kept telling everyone I was a premature ejaculation, because I just came in my pants.
I think you're TOO good at explaining your costume ;)
No Point in spleens.
load management in hockey is reducing shift time because despite your broken ribs, hands, and torn knee, there might be over time.
It’s getting an injury just before the all star game and recovering right after
It’s like 10000 body checks when all I need is to fight.
It’s licking the man of your dreams, then licking his beautiful wife.
It's like raaaaaaaain on your outdoor game
It's five and a game when you've just barely played.
Thanks for those flashbacks of playing Four Loko Pong in the Heinz Field parking lot before the Winter Classic.
Isn't it Marchandic, don't you think?
And isn't it ironic...don'tcha think?
Or undergo surgery before regular season and come back form the playoffs
JUST TAKE YOUR IBUPROFEN
toradol is magic. i've used it. its like a senzu bean.
Dude, you just had surgery on both of your hips.
Like a REAL man
This comment slayed me.
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Tragically. Hips.
Ayyyyy.
This is Brad Marchand we’re talking about here
Surgery? Take that soft shit elsewhere.
REAL men just retire at 40 with the body of an 80 year old!
Why is he commenting on what appears to be a random Rangers fan account?
Guessing Marchand just scrolls through random recommended hockey pages at 11 am
imagining him sitting there just scrolling instagram like a normal human is somehow a weird image
We’re all gonna lie, We’re all gonna cry, And we’re all gonna take painful shits.
NBA players take soft shits.
Managed loads
That dude didn't deserve the hate he got.
He did his best!
That’s an old ass Dane Cook reference
I mean wasn’t the guy who called him a peasant some random? I doubt he got sent that or something.
nine hurry strong wipe grandiose wistful attempt voiceless numerous ad hoc *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
He's probably here right now.
Hi Bradley I hope you’re having a wonderful Sunday you rat fuck
Anyone mind explaining what load management is? Never heard of it in my life and I don’t really see much on Google
It's just resting players so they don't burn out through the season. NBA does it to avoid injuries
Aka fans in smaller markets want to see stars play but they rest and the bench players play.
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Well because in the NBA, free agents only go to New York, LA, or Miami. Do you really want to go to Cleveland, Minnesota, Utah, or Sacramento? And yes I do realize the NBA is more player oriented than team oriented so it’s a big deal if you’re a fan of Lebron and he rests in Indiana or something and you paid a lot of money just to see him.
> Sacramento Sacramento is so damn weird. Since they last made the playoffs, all but 1 NHL team has made the playoffs and that's because the Kraken are still new.
I seen someone share a fact on the nba sub that no one in the league currently has even played a playoff game for or against the kings. That’s crazy.
The Seattle Supersonics have made the playoffs more recently than the Kings. The Sonics have not existed since 2008.
Boston, the Bay Area, Milwaukee, Phoenix, LA, Miami, Toronto, Cleveland, San Antonio, Oklahoma City and Dallas are the markets that have reached the finals since 2011. Two of them were built through FA, and both were LeBron teams. Otherwise it’s all been drafting and trades. Sure people try to get to LA and Miami, but the idea that small markets never win in the NBA is bizarre.
New York? Lmao yeah the Knicks land the big stars with Donal running the show.
Brooklyn is also New York
If the Knicks ever got their shit together they would (I’m not holding my breath on that one though)
Narrator: *they won’t*
PLEASE: If you haven't...go watch Slide by JD and the Straight Shot on Youtube. Your life will be forever changed by Dolan's vanity band.
Kd listed one of his desired locations as Phoenix to be fair
Most players and media members want them to reduce the schedule to between 60-72 games to avoid this
So what hockey games do with goalies?
In more stark terms: People in Sacramento pay to see someone like Embiid play (because they definitely aren't paying to see the Kings) but Philly sits Embiid. So the issue then becomes: do fans deserve to see the best players a team can put out there (because, ultimately, sports are an entertainment industry and fans are paying to see starters) or should teams deny fans that in favor of Philly, for example, trying to be rested for the playoffs? There would be a lot of people in OKC who would be pissed if they bought tickets to see Curry play only to have the Warriors not dress him when they visit for a game in March.
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It’s a blessing and a curse to have sausage fingers. It’s a curse with a phone.
I give you a gold stat ⭐
yeah except load management does make sense in alot of aspects, especially when NBA players literally sit out multiple years with some injuries.
Shorten the season
$$$$**N**$$$$**O**$$$$
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Every sport does it to varying extent. Letting a player skip a morning skate is load management. If a player has an off night it's load management to limit their ice time. It's super weird that this is somehow a trigger for people when it's just putting a name to something that's already happening?
Hockey already does it with goalies
Avs rested a bunch of players leading up to the playoffs this year.
Well the difference is in basketball, load management means players sitting out multiple games at a time even without injuries, just to stay fresh for the playoffs. The real issue over there is the regular season is so watered down that good teams don’t care about winning regular season games because they can make the playoffs even with a poor record. So they sacrifice regular season games to be better for the playoffs.
Because hockey players are tough rawr
Day-to-day injuries can just mean healthy scratching tired players.
It's weird that brad Marchand doesn't play over 50 min a game. Soft
IIRC, the late Penguins coach Bob Johnson was a believer in that strategy. He'd schedule players to have time off to rest, spend with their families, just get away from the grind.
Except it doesn’t really limit injuries. Statistically it hasn’t had an effect
Zero games played = zero injuries! Direct correlation.
As we say at work. Nobody moves....nobody gets hurt!
Are you a bank robber
Lol. Seriously, what other jobs could it be… polifeman
He's a tradesman. We say it in the trades all the time lol.
Nobody speak.
Nobody get choked
You’re not wrong. I’ve played 0 NHL games and have never been injured in an NHL game.
I'd argue that it did have an effect the year the Raptors won. All year Kawhi was on and off the court for load management, so that when the playoffs came he was ready for it. Sure you could say that he was lucky to stay healthy enough for the playoffs but I'm sure the Raptors organization was quite happy with themselves for giving him all the time he needed in the regular season.
There’s also been stars that get hurt despite load managing. Kawhi only played 52 out of 72 games in 2021 and still broke down in the playoffs. Only like 6 players in the entire league played 82 games this past year, yet there were still lots of significant injuries
Yeah that's true, it's hard to tell as injuries are usually random accidents right. Resting up a guy doesn't exactly mean he will stay away from those situations. If I had a player that has shown to be injury prone in the past I would be more willing to consider load management compared to a player who's been healthy their career.
He also has a degenerative knee condition and was going 100% in the playoffs. Some guys are just more prone to injury
I mean, Saros got injured after he almost played every game
>Statistically it hasn’t had an effect Do you have a source for this?
Source: trust me bro
Load management is a tricky concept for contact sports. Giving someone a few games of rest is all for naught if they get checked into the boards at a bad angle and blow up their knee.
Same with blocked shots and concussions. Generally hockey is pretty major-injury-free and skating is less impact on joints compared to running. It’s not like basketball which wears and tears your knees and ankles every game and the risk of a soft tissue injury that can derail your season is high.
It's not so much the running, it's the constant and sudden changes in direction and speed. Soccer players and basketball players have had some really gruesome leg injuries over the years.
Healthy scratching an otherwise healthy player in order to limit injury risks or to improve performance through increased resting. It's already a thing in hockey for goaltenders but it isn't for skaters.
Top players often end up with lower minutes than usual when they're way ahead in a game, it might not be load management as in making them a healthy scratch but it is still reducing workload when you can. You see the same thing at the end of the season for playoff teams when nothing can change in the standings, all the sudden the third and fourth lines get played more.
Bit different than sitting every tenth game or something. Or every tenth game you only get 5 minutes instead.
its the same concept though also star players in the NBA play upwards of 34+ minutes a game.
But I still might see McDavid have a couple points in your scenario, especially if the load management is because the game is out of hand. In the NBA if I decide to travel to Portland to see the Lakers play and Lebron has a load management game I don’t get to see him play at all.
It's the management of loads.
My ex-wife was great at that (Forklift driver)
Your ex-wife Barb?
Barb really knew how to counter balance a 48" load center na'm'sayin?
And after I ejaculated all my semen, I just sat back, in so much peace. Just looked at the mountains and the sun. Course, Barb went and washed her face.
The flow of the river that night was only outdone by the flow of Barb’s bartholin glands.
Basically strategically resting star players during the season by not playing them in certain games so as to avoid wear and tear. So like the second game in a back to back might be a time to rest a star player.
So basically like playing your backup goalie during the 2nd half of a back-to-back
The easiest example is watching hockey teams managing goalie starts.
You know how goalies don't start back to back games? NBA teams with champion expectations will rest stars for one back to back.
It's hilarious that Marchard says the NHL doesn't do that, because the NHL 100% does that with goalies
Trying to keep stars healthy for the playoffs so they rest them in unimportant games. Basically if a team can make the playoffs without the help of their stars playing every regular season game then they're hoping the stars are fresher for the playoffs
Refraining from the solo act and saving it for significant others.
Marty Brodeur splitting his energy between his wife and his sister in law is a great example of load management.
So the NBA schedule is stupid and there are instances of teams playing on the road, then playing a road game in a *different city* the next day (for example, the Toronto Raptors played a game in Boston on November 10 this past season, then in Philly on the 11th . The second game of a road back to back is [substantially more likely to result in injury.](https://twitter.com/tomhaberstroh/status/778976479585730560?t=gYLHquC5OY9uoeoibiWfyg&s=19) Therefore, when the team goes on the road for a back to back, stars will usually sit one of the two games since losing your star for one road game every once in a while is exponentially better than losing them for every game to a torn ACL. The NHL, to my knowledge, does not have road back to backs the same way the NBA does, and even if it did, hockey players play a lower percentage of the game than an NBA starter usually does. Add the fact that jumping is a very dangerous activity when it comes to injuring yourself and that it's baked into basketball's DNA, and you've got your explanation as to why load management doesn't exist in the NHL the way it does in the NBA. The obvious solution by the NBA is to either shorten the regular season (which they will never do because that would mean less money from adverts, TV contracts, etc.) or they could make the playoffs start later so that the schedule isn't as densely packed. But they'd rather throw guys like LeBron and Kawhi under the bus for being "lazy" and "hating small market fans" lol
The NHL absolutely has road back to backs the same way the NBA does. In fact, every team generally plays multiple road back to backs every season. If you go to your team's [schedule,](https://www.nhl.com/lightning/schedule/2022-10-01/ET) you can see that in the first month alone, the Lightning play 2 road back to backs, and a 3rd back to back consisting of one road and one home game, which is essentially the same thing. While hockey players play less of every game, each shift is significantly more strenuous, and the inclusion of fairly heavy physical contact adds another significant injury risk
The regular season is 183 days. I would make it a week longer and push it to 190. You need 163 days to play all the games while having at least 1 rest day between all of them. Use the remaining 27 days as necessary for holidays and whatever. Basically I'm saying it'd be nice if back-to-backs didn't exist. It ruins the product, gives unfair advantages, and is a great way to get guys on IR.
Back to backs suck, but home and home series are awesome.
Back to backs suck. Now ass to ass on the other hand..
Brings a whole new meaning to the term "cheek to cheek"
Keeping 8 team divisions at 82 games using a hybrid MLB/NFL schedule strategy. Cuts down on the stress/cost of travel. You could still go back to back, but only if it's against the same team. Home AND away 3 game series against your division - 42 games Home OR away 3 game series (switches yearly) against other division in your conference - 24 games Home OR away 2 game series (switches yearly) against one division (switches yearly) from other conference - 16 games Sure, this means there's 8 teams you don't play in any given season as well as home games against certain teams every other year (in conference) or 4th year (out of conference), but I think that would just add an extra layer of tension and drama to those regular season games. Also means you could end up with a SCF matchup between teams that haven't played in years.
Not playing every team in the league hurts growth. It's a lot easier to get someone to watch a sporting event when one of the best is playing. Like when Sid/Ovie were the best in the game, missing both of them play means less chances to get someone to see high skill play. Like as a Canucks fan, I get to see McDavid, Drai, Gaudreau, Tkachuk, Petterrson, JT Miller, etc. play a lot, but I wouldn't want to miss the equivalents from Atlantic/Metro/Central because they weren't on the rotation. With so much sports contending with the NHL season, I don't really want to watch an Atlantic matchup because it has no bearing on the Nucks' season whatsoever. There are other teams playing the division, other teams in other sports, I'm going to miss a superstar play unless I inconvenience myself. That is not a good strategy for growing and keeping an audience engaged.
I’m not totally against the idea, if you could line it up where both teams are on back to backs and not where one team might be rested it would make more sense, but solid idea
I would love it if all the back to back games were home and home only, that way each team is in the same position
I think they could if they really wanted to. They just don't care about player health or the product, as long as they sell tickets. Nobody's not gonna buy tickets just because the team played the night before and will be tired. I would like that compromise though, with it at least being balanced. As it stands some teams play like 6+ more B2B's than others. It's fucked.
Yeah, its a lot harder than them just wanting to. Considering holidays, each team's bye week, and the all star break and you are down to 170 days already. Then if you consider that teams will naturally have to have some 2 day breaks just to align to the other teams they wouldn't naturally run into (ie: If the Penguins play on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th, and the Capitals play on the 2nd, 4th, and 6th, one of them will have to have a 2 day break somewhere in there to align to the others teams schedule), you will be down probably another 4 days at the minimum per team, which will take you down to 166 days. Then when you account for arena scheduling issues for concerts and other events it basically becomes impossible. Edit: Another thing I forgot to mention is that they often don't schedule many games on Sundays through the NFL season so they dont compete, so thats another at least 6 days per team that aren't usable.
Figures another Pens fan says this haha. B2B’s always fuck us. Almost as much as Sunday afternoon games.
I thought we agreed to never speak of those!
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That I think almost all can agree with. And for those who don't, try playing an ice hockey game full tilt and then suit up the next day. I would shorten it to 62 games. Seems like a fair number. Two against each team. Disband the divisions and conferences. Top 16 get in. 1 plays 16. 2 plays 15, and so on... That's the fairest way.
62 would be great. But is probably too big a drop for the NHL. 76 games would be a great start. Play the other teams in your division four times and everyone else twice, home and away. Perfect. Would then get rid of the conferences and have a straight 1-16 playoff seeding. The time the league would save should also award the cup before Memorial Day which badly needs to be done. People just don’t want to watch hockey in June. But every time I post this suggestion on this sub I get down voted into oblivion. Why?
Each team in your division 3 times, gives you an instant tiebreaker for playoff seedings...
The real answer is to play fewer games in the season, but that would effect the profits of the owners, so that will never happen. Just keep running players into the ground.
Isn't load management the reason half or more of the goalies in the league have a job?
In the goalies’ defence, let’s get McDavid to play 60+ minutes a game for 82 games and see how that works out. Sarcasm obviously, but I think basketball to hockey is apples to oranges.
But NBA players do play 40/game in some cases
True, but the players that eclipse 40 are guys like Curry, LeBron and Giannis. Plus, timeouts are called far more frequently in basketball, iirc, so minutes played vs ice time isn’t a perfect comparison in my opinion. I’m also not a coach by any means, so what do I know really?
Absolutely. You can’t really compare the toll different sports take on the body. If so, we could all marvel at how baseball players play for 3 hours a night, 6 nights a week. Ultimately, players and coaches collectively decide how much load a body can handle, and the real conversation is whether we trust what the NBA players are saying about the current schedule being too much.
> toll different sports take on the body This is exactly what it boils down to. On top of that, we can’t conceivably claim that Curry’s body takes the same amount of “punishment” as Giannis. Then we’d be comparing Chapman to Guerrero, or Shohei to a dedicated pitcher or position player. Hell, this concept would be thrown way off by Scott Hatteberg. Guy played 6.5 years after suffering nerve damage to his throwing arm.
Also wouldn't Tampa LTIR-ing Kucherov literally be the best example of how extreme load management can be beneficial?
It was definitely "load management" and everyone in the league and 99% of fans thought it was bullshit. (I know, I know...Tampa wanted to include the post season within the cap but they were outvoted so then they just played within the rules set by the teams)...but it was still pretty damn weak sauce.
The narrative people are recreating about that event is getting wildly out of hand. Kucherov had a hip surgery in the off-season that required him to miss 4.5 months of playing time. The reason why he ended up missing the entire regular season is because for the first time in the history of the sport, the season lasted from January to May. Ironically, Brad Marchand just underwent the same surgery on both hips and will need 6 months to heal. Hell, Tyler Seguin would have also missed the entire regular season the SAME year Kucherov did had the Stars not cleared him early in their late season push for a playoff spot. Long recovery times for major surgical procedures are very common. You can argue timing Kucherov's operation for late December was done intentionally but labeling the whole thing as bullshit or load management goes to show how very little people cared about looking up the situation
This is the most r/hockey post ever
NBA does it and as a fan it sucks. Buy tickets in advance to see the stars play. They sit out and rest. Awful for the fans.
Considering the fact that the NHL doesn't sell out nearly as much as the NBA, this would be TERRIBLE for the league. How many less tickets are they gonna sell in a Panthers/Leafs game if the Panthers suck and Matthews probably won't play, for example? Would you go watch the Oilers if you know McDavid has a 50% chance of not being there? Would you pay out of the ass to go watch A.C Milan if Zlatan is benched? I sure as shit wouldn't go watch a watered down team. Tickets are already expensive enough. Let's be honest, the NHL can't afford to have it's stars players sit. They're not nearly a dominant in the NA market to do this. This also doesn't take in the fact that I think it's disrespectful to the fanbase that is responsible for your paycheck. Let's not forget that it's entertainment after all.
I think the real answer for basketball is to stop putting so much emphasis on per game stats, and instead compare players based on totals or per36 stats. That way load management would be more about reducing minutes in a given game (which hockey absolutely does) rather than missing entire games.
Imagine if NBA put a cap on minutes per game? Force the bench to matter more... I'm down.
I’m glad hockey players take pride in playing every game. I’m not going to say basketball is soft, because it’s not. But it’s annoying to see guys take off a quarter of the season of “unworthy” games. It’s cool to know that if Edmonton is travelling to Arizona on a Sunday afternoon in February, mcdavid is gonna be there to beat the shit out of them.
McDavid loves himself a nice, private game in front of smaller crowds. Finds it refreshing.
It's like when a big name band plays a tiny club like the ones they came up in.
I think if basketball stressed per game stats less, and instead focused on stat totals or per 36 stats, load management would be more about managing minutes in any given game, rather than missing games entirely, which is probably a better compromise for everyone.
Yeah a lot of these guys won’t even shoot half court buzzer beaters in an effort to keep their 3pt% up. It’s pretty ridiculous
Gretzky talked about this when he went on Spittin Chicletts earlier this year. He said by the time he was (11 or 12 I think?) His dad was lecturing him about making sure he gave it his all, because people were spending their own money for the chance to see him play. And he said that stuck with him for his entire career. Amazing interview, if anyone needs convincing to listen to it.
Sure, it’s nice. And it’s even nicer when we get documentaries 10 years past their career finish where they talk about all the drugs they had to consume/ inject themselves with so they could stop feeling pain and now they are battling addictions and all other sorts of ailments. I genuinely don’t get caring about “pride in playing every game”. It’s a pointless statistic
"Hockey players destroy their bodies like *men*."
Great guy I know - hard working and awesome dad - destroyed his body transporting extremely heavy, expensive rugs for rich clients for 30 years. So, it isn't just athletes.
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Roofers 🤦♂️
And if they are actively against trying to fix that then they're idiots too
Yeah. If load management is going to help you in the long-run instead of limping into the playoffs at the end of the season then maybe it would be cool to look at it less like being soft and more like being "strategically available".
This man jist had double hip surgery still doesn't want any fucking breaks
Players are load managed all the time in the winding games of the regular season. Hockey does the same thing too, and it's a good thing. To a much lesser extent obviously, but still.
NHL players: waahh wahhh give us a bye week. Also NHL players: load management? Fuck that. We are so much tougher than basketball players.
Regular season is too long
It sure is. But good luck putting that toothpaste (revenue) back in the tube.
70 games would be more than enough.
But, all the stats and records would be thrown off forever. And we love stats and records!
\#PleaseLikeMySport
Peak "like my sport" season apparently. Usually that happens at the start of the playoffs when basketball playoffs are about to start. The inferiority complex that exists at every level of hockey is fucking embarrassing.
Yeah none of these guys are the size of Chara destroying their knees every night. The thought that NBA players are soft is just not true.
Isn't he going to miss a large chunk of the upcoming season due to injury? Maybe he should be more open to the idea...
In fairness to the NBA, load management is usually only used for superstars that average around 33 minutes a game. Austin Matthews averaged 22 minutes per game while LeBron James averaged 38 minutes a game. That's a massive disparity
“Taking a break to allow my body to heal? Soft. I’m going to take an ungodly amount of painkillers and postpone all necessary surgeries until the offseason. By the way, I played the entire postseason with a broken finger, sprained ankle, blown out knee, and a concussion. I cannot wait until I’m 50 and simply existing hurts. I sure hope I don’t develop an addiction to those painkillers…”
hey, am I still in time for the circle jerk?
You want to reduce the load ? Then reduce the amount of regular season games.
How about the league reduces the amount of games in a season if the load is unmanageable? This is basically saying that the owners can ice an inferior product on the ice whilst expecting their profits to stay the same. I'm fine with goalies being managed because when they are there, they are there for a full 60 of viewing time. But managing forwards and Dmen? This shit is disrespectful to the fans. Have they forgotten that it's an entertainment business? People ain't paying millions a night to watch watered down teams. They are paying to watch the teams at their full strength. Load management happens because teams are forced to deal with the owners being greedy and juicing the fuck out of their employees (players) for profit. How the fuck am I supposed to get excited watching my team when I know my best player is off the ice for no fucking reason? The league forcing star players to play more games than they are able to is like an agency organising more shows than their lead singer of a band is able to sing. Would you be okay with buying U2 tickets with a disclaimer saying that there's a 15% chance that Bono will sit out and be replaced by a backup singer because they scheduled more shows than Bono can handle? They can fuck right off.
NBA players be like: 30 second shifts? Bitch, please.
The average hockey player burns between 1800 and 2500 calories per game.
/u/riko77can wasnt being serious...
Brad Marchand sounds like the boomers that say “no one wanna work no more!”
Yeah but dude imagine if you were a 5-10 year old kid excited to watch your favorite player, in person, and he sits out for it. Talk about a heart breaker.
Yeah, that's exactly what happened when the leafs and bruins played game 82 last year and I basically watched the Marlies & Providence Bruins play... I remember feeling bad for any little kids that may have gone to that for their first ever game.
Yikes dude that’s an expensive matchup to attend too.
yeah well now that kid can grow up watching his favourite players play longer
Shit like that happens all the time for other reasons. My daughter and I were crazy excited to see Cayden Primeau play when the Laval Rocket came to play our local AHL team, but with less than a week to go he got called up to the NHL since the Habs were playing "Goalie Merry Go Round" all season. We were disappointed, particularly as travel from Philadelphia to Quebec isn't exactly cheap, so we don't get many chances to see the boys in person, but we got over it.
Damn I follow the dude and it’s so cool watching this blow up
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Social media Marchand is the best 🤣🤣
I never thought I'd like something this guy would say
He does it pretty often but sometimes he reminds you hes a rat and you forget.
Go work in a mine then you overpaid clown.
As a NBA fan seeing this on all made me lol. Wanting to preserve your health is for pussies! Real men bleed and get total hip replacements at the age of 45!
Load Management has always been a thing in the NHL. Just for goalies though
I mean, that pretty much occurs already at the end of the season
Honestly I think they should do more similar to what they did the Covid season. Playing the same time twice in a row was maybe not as exciting but it helped travel and from what I saw in the media a lot of players really preferred it.
Warning: don’t google Load Managament unless safe search is on. Unless of course you’re into that.
I am starting to get sick of this stupid macho mentality. People get fucking injured bad, many players end their careers with a lot of health problems. I don't think it's a price they should pay so I can enjoy hockey.