The Year of the Outdoor Game: A Look at 11 Teams and Their Jerseys Part 1

Since us fans were deprived of the annual Winter Classic in 2012-13 (and the league was deprived of the astronomical profits), the NHL decided to build six outdoor games into this season's schedule. Seems like a little bit of an overcompensation, oversaturation maybe, but the league is venturing into uncharted markets.

We can argue day and night over whether bringing the outdoor festivities to more fans is a positive move or if it cheapens the novelty and spectacle of the idea but I think one thing we can all agree on is the excitement over the new swag rolled out by each team involved.

While most teams employ forward-thinking third jerseys for a handful of home games each year, the Winter Classic and Heritage Classic typically gives us the opportunity to honour tradition. In the past, the combatants have dug deep into their respective histories, crafting memorable pieces as unique as the event itself.

With the Stadium Series set for its inaugural year, the NHL has sought for a different take to the outdoor sweater. Well, the results are in (except you, New Jersey) so let's put each team's work up against each other for each event, bust out our patented rating system, and find out who would win if the teams played 60 minutes of fabulous.

How's Your Rebuild Hanging?: An Early Look at Colorado and Edmonton

If you take a look, the Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers have a good amount in common. They have had several high draft picks in the past few years, both saw recent changes in the front office and behind the bench, they both ice a majority of younger players on any given night, and both are now facing new opponents after the dissolution of the Northwest Division.

After finishing the 2012-13 season 29th and 24th, respectively to Colorado and Edmonton, it could be agreed that both teams are in the midst of rebuilding. We knew very well that Edmonton was seeing some growing pains as they have had three consecutive number 1 draft picks while struggling to gain competitive relevance in the league, but nothing formal had been assumed for the Colorado organisation until 4-year head coach Joe Sacco was relieved of his duties this summer.

The early season results for both teams aren't quite what we may expect, however. The Oilers Watch is a yearly occurrence as we await the maturation point for the promising young talent in the Copper and Blue, and yet they sit at the basement of the Pacific. The Colorado Avalanche, on the other hand, jumped out to a 10-1-0 record through the month of October and remain in the conversation to this day with 43 points in a league-low 31 games played.

So what is contributing to Colorado's success that Edmonton is missing? Let's take a look and see what we can find out.

Alternative NHL Standings: Chasing the Almighty Win

New York Times reporter Jeff Z. Klein (@jzedklein) recently put together an alternate version of the league standings (More simply laid out on Puck Daddy here). Instead of the current system-where two points are awarded for any win, one point awarded in a shootout or overtime loss, and zero points in a regulation loss-he implemented the three point system. In case you aren't familiar, this proposed format would award three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime or shootout win, one point for an overtime or shootout loss, and zero points for a regulation loss.

As you can see, the results were, well, fairly underwhelming. While there was a small amount of jockeying for position in the Eastern Conference, the Western Conference was exactly the same, save for flip-flopping Anaheim for San Jose at the top of the Pacific.

The whole purpose of this exercise is to see how things would look if more value was placed on winning in the first 60 minutes of the game as opposed to dragging things out, and the league is expressly in favour of shorter games. Granted, things may have actually been different if teams played with the knowledge of three points on the line rather than two but we do get an idea as to whether this would bring with it a noticeable change.

While this scenario is an improvement on the system we have now, it still places points at the forefront and not necessarily, you know, wins. So for those of you who think that we should just call a win a win and a loss a loss, here's a set of the current standings where wins are presented as a percentage, not a point total.

Welcome to the Big Leagues, Kid: 2013-14 Week Six First Career NHL Goals

Welcome friends. Another week of goals awaits us, but something seems different. While we haven't seen things taper off in dramatic fashion, this week 6 of our 9 goals were scored by defencemen. Well, putting the biscuit in the basket from the back-end certainly is a different beast than from the front lines. Let's take a look at what we have here:

On Forecasting the Market for Goaltenders

Let's take a little trip into the not-so-way-back machine. The year is 2006, a few weeks before the start of the '06-'07 season, and goaltender Rick DiPietro is entering into a pact with Garth Snow and the New York Islanders that would pay him $4.5 million per year. Doesn't sound too crazy does it? He had been playing with the big club since 2000 and was steadily becoming a serviceable netminder at 25 years of age. One figures the Islanders wanted to pay him what they felt he was worth to the organisation and solidify him as the present and future of the team's crease.

But wait! While a $4.5 million cap hit doesn't make you bat an eyelash, the 15-year term to the deal might seem a little strange. It was certainly the first of this magnitude and especially unheard of for a goaltender. Even Evgeni Nabakov, unquestioned elite starter in San Jose, and Martin-freaking-Brodeur, both of whom had signed the same year, couldn't wrangle more than 4 and 6 years, respectively, from their owners.

Welcome to the Big Leagues, Kid: 2013-14's Weeks Four and Five First Career NHL Goals

We had a healthy dose of first career goals in Week Four but things seemed to taper off the following week. Since this is beyond late anyways how about we do two weeks all together? Sounds good to me so here we go.

Welcome to the Big Leagues, Kid: 2013-14's Week Three First Career NHL Goals

Welcome to Week 3 of first NHL goals. The excitement keeps on rolling, especially if you happened to be watching the league on Thursday the 17th when six guys populated the list. Let's jump right in, shall we?