Just because you don't understand the cap circumvention doesn't mean it's not cheating.
- Queenie_5_hole

Sorry, despite your opinion there's literally nothing in the rulebook about "cap circumvention". That's a buzzword to make something sound more dramatic and sinister than it is.

Regarding LTIR, as you mentioned the keyword is healthy. Now can you please tell me what the expected recovery time is for the procedure Kucherov had? Then please tell me what the time was from when he had the surgery to when he played his first game?

If you did that, which you wont because you're a hack, there would be no way to say that it's blatant cheating because it's well within the expected outcome. The situation just aligned perfectly for the Lightning's benefit.

It's only cheating if you ignore the facts and reject reality because doing so allows you to create an illusionary world in your mind that matches what you wish was real.

Call it what it is and I still dont care. The cap blows and a hard cap is utterly ridiculous. I'd rather be able to watch the team that Tampa put together than a team neutered and homogenized by the cap.....(frank) the cap
- THE BLACK HAND

NHL can't survive without a hard cap. It would be like baseball where top 10 cap teams are always competitive.

It's so Eklund to be so consistently late in posting these.. You'd think you would give people the opportunity to make a predictions well in advance of the game starting, after knowing the matchups. Or, you know, post it on the afternoon of game day..

Tune in for this Sundays, June 36th hockey buzz!!

Just because you don't understand the cap circumvention doesn't mean it's not cheating. The current rules are crystal clear that players MUST be moved off of LTIR when they are healthy. LTIR is not a tool to hide players because your team isn't cap compliance.

The issue is the league has no way to police this so when Tampa decided to cheat (because Kucherov was skating in practice with full contact for a long time without being 'medically cleared' until the playoffs and the cap didn't apply - you know just coincidentally because we're all lackies.) there is no recourse. That doesn't magically mean you didn't cheat. It means you get away with it.
- Queenie_5_hole

Kucherov definitely could have returned earlier. However, give credit that many teams could not still make the postseason without arguably their best skater on LTIR all regular season. Also even with insurance, owners are paying millions for non performing players. CHI won in '15 with Kane riding LTIR unnecessarily. I dont fault teams for operating in their best interest.

Sorry, despite your opinion there's literally nothing in the rulebook about "cap circumvention". That's a buzzword to make something sound more dramatic and sinister than it is.

Regarding LTIR, as you mentioned the keyword is healthy. Now can you please tell me what the expected recovery time is for the procedure Kucherov had? Then please tell me what the time was from when he had the surgery to when he played his first game?

If you did that, which you wont because you're a hack, there would be no way to say that it's blatant cheating because it's well within the expected outcome. The situation just aligned perfectly for the Lightning's benefit.

It's only cheating if you ignore the facts and reject reality because doing so allows you to create an illusionary world in your mind that matches what you wish was real.
- Izzo

First of all, it's not the rulebook. It's the Collective Bargaining Agreement. So start by getting the basics right. And there is alot in the CBA about how the Cap and LTIR operate.

https://couchguysports.co...umventing-the-salary-cap/

Yup, it all just perfectly aligned by itself. Go figure. We're not dupes.

Kucherov definitely could have returned earlier. However, give credit that many teams could not still make the postseason without arguably their best skater on LTIR all regular season. Also even with insurance, owners are paying millions for non performing players. CHI won in '15 with Kane riding LTIR unnecessarily. I dont fault teams for operating in their best interest.
- jfkst1

Tampa is a great team and I have no doubt that Kucherov was legitimately injured. And I'm not saying everyone or anyone needs to condemn them for what they did. I'm just saying they did what they clearly and obviously did; which was to use LTIR to manipulate the salary cap until the playoffs rendered it irrelevant.

To me, that makes them cheaters. To someone else that might make them brilliantly innovative. That's fine. But this garbage about pretending this is just how it magically worked out is ridiculous. It's up to the league to decide how or if to address this going forward. Bettman was pretty clear it was a concern to him and he'd figure out how to deal with it after the season. So that tacitly say the Lightning are fine for this season.

First of all, it's not the rulebook. It's the Collective Bargaining Agreement. So start by getting the basics right. And there is alot in the CBA about how the Cap and LTIR operate.

https://couchguysports.co...umventing-the-salary-cap/

Yup, it all just perfectly aligned by itself. Go figure. We're not dupes.
- Queenie_5_hole

And just like I knew you would, you completely dodge the reality of the time line of the surgery. After all that destroys your argument so why would you. So keep living in your illusionary world.

And just like I knew you would, you completely dodge the reality of the time line of the surgery. After all that destroys your argument so why would you. So keep living in your illusionary world.
- Izzo

I didn't dodge it. The posted article talks about it extensively. The only illusion is your belief that things just magically worked out on the optimal timeline without the team doctors intentionally not clearing Kucherov because of the cap implications.

Right now the Tampa salary is over $86.5M. The cap limit was $ 81.5.

There are dozen of articles about what actually transpired and the league has expressed their concern about this. However, since is part of the CBA it is not something that can be unilaterally changed.